I recently spoke with Tyema Sanchez a native of Philadelphia, Tyema has over five years’ experience in event planning and 10 years’ experience in administration in corporate America and in hospitality. In 2012 she established her own business – GirlTini, based out of Philadelphia. She created this company because she loves sisterhood. She prides herself on providing a platform where females are living, laughing and learning from each other’s life experiences. She is a master at using social networking sites to spread the word about issues, programs, events and organizations. She believes by helping others, she is helping herself. I spoke briefly with Tyema and asked about her company and what she hopes to achieve.
What made you decide to become involved in the process of community activeness   "I am a humanitarian by nature; it gives me great pride and joy to know I can help or empowering another human being.  Also, volunteerism is a great way to teach your children about giving without the intent of receiving"
How do you think that we can get more people especially women involved in their communities ? "I think majority of people truly want to help, organizations just have to give them a genuine platform to volunteer their time"
What are some of the things that GirlTini has already done? "GirlTini played a major role in Philadelphia in the re-election of President Obama. We canvassed the streets, made phone calls and attending events. We volunteered our services at the Tom Joyner’s Bring a Loved One to the Doctor’s event and the Call to Action, Black on Black Non Violence conference hosted by The Father’s Day Rally Committee. We also had a Share the Comfort Drive at the Stenton Family Manor that we did on December 15th and 16th"
How many members does Girltini have? "GirlTini network consist of 625 empowering women from all over the East coast."
What drew you to help Stenton Family Manor "The program director, Pam Clack, of The Phenomenal Sweethearts recommended that we adopt the shelter under our Pledge program and enroll the young ladies in our mentoring program."
What message do you hope to get across to people especially the young people in this city? "Volunteerism is as much for the volunteer as it is for the recipient of the volunteer service. Allowing yourself the opportunity to help someone else makes a difference in your community, it gives you a sense of pride, it solves community problems, strengthen communities, improve lives and connect people. If more people allowed themselves the opportunity to feel this self-gratification our world would be a better place, it’s no I’s in We."
I will be speaking to more people who are using their voice and actions to effect change.