We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Daphnee Uter a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Daphnee, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
My idea came about from a personal loss in my family. Losing someone special in my life, helped me to realize that I needed to be a change agent and that I needed to help women, especially caregivers and Veterans. It got me thinking about all the women who are caregivers that needs a day of relief and those women that served our country that are still yet invisible, and lastly the spouses of Veterans serving along with the soldier and caring for their child while they honor their commitment to this country. I said to myself, I can chose to be sad and upset about the fact the unexpected loss of someone at such a young age that was a caregiver all her life or I can do something about it and educate other women about the importance of self-care. I chose to focus that energy to change the lives of women that needs our help. I knew this was a worthwhile endeavor because I knew that if I could change one life that I could change many. I took a leap of faith and talked with three close friends about my plan and they were amazing and supported my idea and journey in this process. At that point, I knew that it would work because I had a team of strong women Veterans and caregivers: Pamela Black, Yolanda Brown, and Arie Lewis, that were selflessly willing to serve with me at the time.
I would say we are addressing an issue that is very unique in a sense that respite and retreat for caregivers is not being addressed. Many organizations offers services for the love ones but not so many resources to the Caregiver itself. Our approach is also unique because One Life To Live Foundation is giving women a day of respite and pampering. As women Veterans and caregivers, we understood what this population of women needed. It is so far the best way to honor women heroes, Veterans and their spouses, and to address caregivers’ emotional and physical need. The thought of seeing women taking care of their overall health while serving others gets me excited.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Daphnee Uter, I am originally from Haiti and I am United States Navy Veteran. I am the founder and Chief Executive Officer of One Life To Live Foundation, a not for profit organization that support, encourage and educate Women Veterans, Spouses of Veterans and Caregivers by providing them a day of respite and retreat to focus on their personal holistic wellness. Our purpose is to raise awareness about women Veterans and create opportunities for woman spouses of Veterans and/or caregivers to take better care of their health and well being. The amount of stress and challenges a caregiver or spouse of a wounded/ill Veteran and caregivers in this country face every day is imaginable. There is no award or money that can compensate for extraordinarily generosity of ordinary women, caregivers and Veterans. Raising awareness on this issue and giving women time to focus on their wellness have a positive impact on their health and help them be gentler to the person that they care for.
I believe that change is inevitable, but as a leader I want to create good and positive changes for those women heroes in my community. The best way to create change is to be able to speak facts effectively and share experiences and personal stories that relates or resonate with others. I always felt that in every situation that it was important to know your community and understand the need and want of the people that you are serving. From my experience, it is easier for me to speak on the issues of Women Veteran and of caregivers because I am a Veteran and I have myself am a caregiver to my aunt. Those experiences help me better understand the community that I am trying to serve. I am one voice, one perspective, but learning, listening, understanding and sharing other Veterans and caregivers’ stories through One Life To Live Foundation help me speak their truths and their needs into existence.
I am a strong advocate for Women Veterans and I also have a big heart. The fact is women just like men have taken the oath to serve and protect this country; they are as brave and as strong as any men or male Veterans out there. Women are heroes as well, and they deserve the same recognition and respect.
I am most proud of my commitment to continue to serve my community. I want to continue to make a difference in the lives of woman and promote self care.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
The initial capital to start my non profit came from myself and my three friends that believed in my vision. It was about two months after the loss of my aunt that I had set a meeting with my three friends at a restaurant at which point I told them that I was starting a non-profit to honor my aunt legacy. They without any hesitation to my surprise asked me how could they help. I always believe that nothing is really impossible as long as you are willing to take the first step, so I told them at the time that I would make the first investment by applying and they agree to do the same. I would say within that week, our organization was founded. A couple of months after receiving our certification for 501(c) (3) tax exempt status we applied for our first grant, in which we successfully received from Healthier Neighbors and that was the start of One Life To Live Foundation.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Sometimes during the pandemic, all of my friends that started and build this non-profit with me informed me that they could not continue on the journey and I was heartbroken. I thought with the pandemic and losing key members, that my dream of seeing One Life to Live Foundation succeed was never going to happen. it became very hard as I had to fill each individual roles during that time. I wanted to just give up at one point, but my heart would not let me, I went back to “my why?” I refocus on the goal of the organization and realized that these women were counting on One Life To Live Foundation, and whether I had one person or no one, that I was not giving up. So every day, I worked a little bit harder towards helping other women and those actions helped me to have volunteers that wanted to serve with me. Sometimes, all it takes is a little reflection on our purpose and the things that drives us to be who we are. I chose to be the one to say, the skies is the limit.
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