An architect couple lending their expertise 
to the construction of a village in Rwanda … A designer helping to empower children across the globe … A store owner promoting consumerism with a conscience … There are many men and women among us who are drawing on their knowledge, talents and passion to bring people together, inspire creativity and improve lives. MiNDFOOD meets some spirited individuals making a difference.    

Phoebe Hayman

Toy Maker


Phoebe Hayman has a simple goal: to share the playtime activities that sparked her delight as a child growing up in California and Iowa. This mother of two is the founder of the toy company Seedling. From simple beginnings – a cooking set for a friend’s child – Hayman now commands a staff of 40-plus, and her products are sold in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Scandinavia, Japan and the UK, among others. With little business experience, former photographer Hayman embarked on the venture in late 2006 because she sensed there was something missing in the lives of the children around her. “You used to be able to go out into the neighbourhood with your friends and climb trees or whatever. But it’s not like that now.” The Seedling kits provide children (and parents) with the tools to create everything from T-shirts and cupcakes to a sunflower garden and a kaleidoscope. Hayman says that the range is dedicated to helping kids develop their creative sides: “Kids don’t 
have limitations in their minds.”

seedling.co.nz

Virginia Bruce

Social Entrepreneur


A consumer product manifesto adorns the wall of the R.E.A.L. Store (reality, energy, altruism, love) in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo. Under four headings: passion, creativity, integrity and connection, proprietor Virginia Bruce spells out her vision for the five-month-old shop. “I like to think they’re ordinary products with extraordinary messages,” the 43-year-old says of her wares. “You’re not going to stop people consuming, so let’s create beautiful products that have a degree of social conscience involved.” Bruce hand-picks many of the items – from ornate Chinese furniture and South African ornaments to clothing made in US prisons – for their intricate back stories and the inspired history of their creators. “The platform of the store is to inspire human connection. We want to … help people fulfil their lives with what their gifts are,” she says of the artisans and manufacturers she supports. “I think the more we align people with their true path and talents, the stronger as a global community we can grow to be.”

therealstore.com.au

Simon Mok & Glyn Chan

Ukulele Aficionados


A couple of years ago, Simon Mok and Glyn Chan started a movement in Singapore by opening up their country’s first (and still only) ukulele store. “We stumbled upon [the instrument] when a friend showed us a video on YouTube, so I watched more and more videos and Simon decided to get me one for Christmas,” says Chan. The once corporate couple, who were previously working as stock market day traders, now preside over a thriving ukulele ‘headquarters’ in Singapore’s eclectic Little India. “Many friends tell us that they envy us and some of them are thinking of a career change. Many of our customers who have never played a musical instrument in their lives are now forming their own jamming groups and some are even forming their own bands. Things will always work out if you want it bad enough to make it happen,” says Chan.

ukulelemovement.com

Penny Fuller 
& Jad Silvester

Architects With A Cause


Having worked at prestigious architecture firms around the world, Jad Silvester and Penny Fuller came home to create their own business in 2008. “When we set up our practice [in Sydney], we were conscious of establishing a percentage of clients that were pro bono,” Silvester says. To that end, they turned their expertise to the organisation Hope: Rwanda. “We were offered several projects before we agreed on this one,” Fuller says. “It came from someone we knew well and trusted, and collectively we could see that we could really help.” For the past two and a half years, the couple have established a blueprint to continue the development of a village in Gasabo, Rwanda, to house widows and orphans left devastated by the civil war of the early 1990s. The community and medical centres, sports field, school and houses are to be constructed by locals trained and employed by the organisation. “Ideally, we’d like to see the project duplicated throughout Rwanda, each one better than before, and encouraging more and more local people,” Silvester says.

silvesterfuller.com


Remo Giuffre

Ideas Man


“Our mission is to inspire and entertain,” Remo Giuffre says of the TEDx conference he launched in Sydney. “We want to become a platform for the best and the brightest and the most interesting locals to be hopefully put on the global stage.” Adopting the tagline ‘ideas worth spreading’, TED (technology, entertainment and design) hosts some of the world’s greatest minds at local ‘x’ events before broadcasting their talks online (ted.com). Giuffre’s involvement with the international franchise began 20 years ago, and he says that it has moved in a philanthropic direction. “It didn’t necessarily start as this ‘make the world better’ mission; it started more as a showcase of innovation, excellence and design thinking. To bottle the ‘cool’ that was always TED for the greater good of humankind has got to be a good thing.” Beyond his involvement with TED, the self-described merchant and thinker owns the REMO General Store, a gift shop with the aim “not to sell things but to sell passion”. “It started as a bit of a personal temple of passion, but happily I discovered there was a lot of crossover between what I thought was good and what others thought was good.”

tedxsydney.com

Michelle Roldan

Creative Thinker


Just a year out of university, graphic designer Michelle Roldan was looking for a change. “I was playing with the idea of putting my skills somewhere purposeful,” Roldan says. So while travelling in the Solomon Islands with Dutch nurse Mirjam Verkleij, Roldan embraced the opportunity to volunteer at a small primary school in Fote Village. Inspired by the children, Roldan and Verkleij, along with American friend Rhoda Lazo, founded Little and Loud, a child-focused arts, media and technology foundation aimed at empowering and connecting children worldwide. “Because I am a child of the Facebook and Twitter generation, I’m really hoping to use those technologies to connect children together,” Roldan says. The trio have developed an arts curriculum available for other schools to implement, in addition to ‘Dear World, It’s Me’, an online project that collects and publishes children’s letters and artworks. “Our organisation advocates the power of creativity as a really important tool for communication, and we think that needs to start really early on,” she says. “I don’t see children as naive. 
I find inspiration in them and they too can be inspired.”

littleandloud.org

Melissa Sharplin

Passionate Artist


When Melissa Sharplin arrived in Samoa for a wedding in September 2009, she was reading a book about near-death experiences. Days later she would be faced with her own mortality when an underwater earthquake triggered a tsunami that would see her running for her life. “The year before [2009 was] a bad year. It was a tsunami of misfortune. Then the physical tsunami hit, and after that I thought, ‘This is my chance to change everything’,” the 30-year-old artist says. Sharplin had been working as an artist for several years in different countries, but says she was lacking inspiration. “After the tsunami, I wanted to do bigger, more beautiful, more powerful work. [It] has just got so much more energy, passion and love. What I’m doing now I adore, and that’s the difference.” It was through a dream after the tsunami that she envisaged her latest collection, Swit Swurl. “The birds represent freedom, freedom of choice that we have … as women. One hundred years ago we couldn’t make the choices we can now.”

melissasharplin.com