SATTIE PERSAUD

POWERHOUSE GLOBAL MAGAZINE (PGMAG) INTERVIEW WITH:

SATTIE PERSAUD (SP)

PGMAG: Sattie, so good to have you on today’s interview with Lady Anita.

SP: Thank you Lady Anita, pleasure to be here with you.

PGMAG: Please briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

SP: My name is Sattie Persaud, and I am the founder of World Heritage Cultural Center (WHHC)– a nonprofit that will change the way you think about culture. WHCC introduces people to cultures other than their own through performing, visual and culinary, which helps them gain a global perspective and better understanding of those different from themselves. Also, exposing people to their own cultures helps them understand their roots better in a nation where, often, they do not have contact with others culturally like them. I was inspired to start WHCC because of my personal story.

I am of Indian descent from Calcutta and Utarpardesh born in Guyana, brought up in Suriname. Living in Suriname, I felt like time stood still because people held on to ancient traditions. Women were married at or before 13 and became grandmothers by 26. This was my mother’s story too; she became a grandmother at 26 when my older sister gave birth at 13.

I never identified with the way women around me just accepted certain hand-medown cultural traditions that desperately needed modernized. I was a different breed altogether.

That’s not the life I wanted for myself. At a young age, I had to start helping my parents with income by selling candy and cigarettes on the side of the road, in front of our house every day after school. I was 7 at the time, good in math and very chubby, so I looked like I was 10! There, I met many different people. This forced me to grow. You may read that and wonder why I am an advocate for ancient cultures and traditions? Well things such as getting married at 13 are traditions that needs to change among others traditions that keeps people from advancement.

One of the amazing people I met whilst helping my parents was a Jehovah’s Witness who would sit with me and teach me to read a book bible stories written in English. We are of Hindu religion, but my mother sees all religions in the same light and welcomed the teachings. We were taught Dutch in school, too, so I spoke 2 languages and several dialects. I developed a hunger to read everything I could, never realizing I was in search of who I really was.

We didn’t have Internet 20 years ago in Suriname; I never knew what a cell phone was until 1999. So a book changed my life forever, made me dream bigger than my world. It was a coverless book that started at page 8 and ended at 147, and I called it “Nora Roberts” because that was at the top of every page. I didn’t understand what it was until years later, but it was my guide to a world I wanted to be part of. A world where women were independent, went to school— something called “college”—and had their own voice. That is the message I derived from a thrown away romance novel, and it helped me find the woman in me.

Not able to escape cultural traditions when it came to marriage, long story short, I was arranged to be married to someone in America and all I asked for was to go to college. I got to America in December of 1996, and my marriage lasted for about 4 months, which felt like 40 years. After mental abuse and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, a doctor advised that due to my “under-age marriage,” I needed a change in scenery. I was shipped off to Chicago, IL, to my mother’s cousin, who told me he would help me if I didn’t want to go back. They needed a nanny, so I would be able to help them in return.

I took the opportunity, got a divorce, and never went back. Within a year I studied for my GED exam, enrolled in a community college, started driving lessons, and worked as a nanny. With two additional part-time jobs on nights and weekends, I put myself through college. The Universe gave me a torch to find my voice, I never forgot where I came from, and I need to share that light. In 2005, after graduating with a degree in accounting and taking screenwriting courses at New York Film Academy, I wrote a novel, Colours of Fate which follows my family from eight generations ago through modern day. It focuses on the life of my ancestor who left India with her British lover for a new land in South America, the British colony of Guyana in the mid 1800s, and parallels my journey to America through the eyes of a character created with attributes of the strongest women in my life. Both women overcome obstacles and agents of change and learn to accept and believe in wonder and life. The world forgot about the Indians from India who went to South America. My novel helps shed a light on this. Its been sitting on the shelf for the past 10 years, as I focus on work and WHCC , but when the time is right, I know it will be published.

PGMAG: As the Founder of World Heritage Cultural Centre (WHCC), how important is it for culture to be promoted and embraced in the workplace?

SP: Great question!

We have come a long way with corporate cultural acceptance, but what about the incredibly important part of who we are—our cultural behaviour due to our heritage—that is usually hidden in the workplace, the white elephant in the room.

Understanding where someone comes from, their cultural and inherited roots, promotes unity in diversity.

We need to understand simple things such as why some cultures don’t wear their shoes inside the house or that certain cultures bow to you when they meet you instead of shaking hands. Being a part of American culture means that some people have to learn to say what they mean and not what everyone wants to hear. They may not eat certain things, they may dress differently, or need time off to celebrate important cultural holidays. These are all things we often overlook, but if we learned to understand the differences, the workplace would be a more successful and effective environment. Leaving religion and politics out of the equation, things that corporations can do is celebrate through performing, visual and culinary arts for employees to learn about different cultural customs and values with the hope that will foster respect among employees. To feel accepted and respected by our fellow humans is one of the greatest empowerments that exists.

PGMAG: Diversity and Inclusion has been hot topics in the last 12 months. What are some of the ways in which leaders can effectively bring the needed change, to ensure that these important topics are part of their policies and procedures in their organisations?

SP: As I mentioned,

we need to apply more than just blanket corporate diversity and inclusion standards to corporate policies, which often exclude the heritage side of what makes a person who they are.

Who are employees when they are home, which nowadays is the same place as work with the pandemic? We have a lot to learn about their food, fashion, arts, and other attributes because some things offend one group but are fine with another. For example, here in the U.S., we have a constant influx of people who first generation immigrants, so they don’t just adapt to “American” culture right away. Giving friendly hugs is to a stranger is normal in American culture, but someone new may be highly offended by that. Or some people only eat halal meat, which means that a prayer is said before slaying the animals, thanking them for their sacrifice for our benefit, so they won’t eat at an employee lunch. These are things we need to learn about each other in the workplace and embrace as beautiful cultural differences.

PGMAG: Please tell us more about WHCC.

SP: Established in New York in 2005, the World Heritage Cultural Center is a non-profit organization that has faith in the idea of celebrating life through art to convey the greatest stories of the human odyssey. The organization doesn’t focus on religion or politics and lives by our core value to be instrumental in facilitating a transformation in our society, where people can contribute to what matters most, Humanity. Our Humanity is our only hope for a better tomorrow. In addition to promoting cultural awareness, we are also dedicated to making a positive impact through knowledge and charity. We want to empower and help other nonprofits make a stronger positive impact as well.

PGMAG: How do you create ‘Inspired Global Contributors’ to fund projects that benefit humanity?

SP: So when I started this journey with WHCC, while maintaining a full-time job to pay the bills and help my entire family after they moved to America,

I attended every entrepreneur networking event I could find. But people there would say I was too young to take on changing the world the way I wanted to or they didn’t respect the aspect of promoting unity in diversity or I would be handed room keys to discuss my ideas in their private rooms.

So I stopped. I had to forge my own path. I had to create the resources I needed with the tools I had. And the most powerful was my vision. I started creating pieces of my vision, with our first World of Colors concert on June 5, 2009, with 23 countries on stage. With hope and positive thinking, word got out to the cultural media, and the show was broadcasted in 160 countries, although we basically sold enough tickets to pay our bills. A few weeks later, the Travel & Adventure shows (currently across 11 states) invited us to produce their Global Beats stage at the Javits Center in New York City. It was a blast and success. They then asked if we could travel with them, and I took a leap of faith and said we could, not knowing any cultural groups outside of the tristate area. I made hundreds of call in Los Angeles and was able to secure eight cultural groups, which are still with us 12 years later, and we now have over 800 cultural groups that donate time on stage because of our noble mission of changing society. The formula I have created for that is to celebrate humanity through performing, visual, and culinary arts.

We plan to open our first physical headquarters for World Heritage Cultural Center in the near future, which will be a global destination for cultural heritage. It will allow connections with all the bridges WHCC has already built which includes over 200 countries and territories. WHCC is looking to the world for help to create this space. The project has a budget of $6M to $10M and the Center has a strong business plan to generate revenue, after this seed money to build the center is raised, rather than continuing to rely on donations and grants. We cannot wait to bring the world together at our state-of-theart 30,000 square foot building, welcoming luminaries in their fields from around the world to celebrate humanity through the arts while making a positive impact through knowledge and charity.

My vision is that the power of unity and love for our fellow humans will fuel this dream, for this task is too big just for one person to carry.

There are over 7 billion people in the world. We only need 300,000 to donate $20 to make this happen. #WHCCD.A.R.E D: Diversity A: ALL R: Relate E: Embrace

PGMAG: Your organisation has grown exponentially since inception, what are the keys of building a successful organisation?

SP: No matter what resources you have, the key ingredient is believing in your vision. Disrupting the status quo is never easy. I had more people shut me down than encourage me when I first started, but I believed in the beauty of my dream, and the Universe rewards hard work. You may not have the perfect formula for a project, but get creative and make whatever you have in front of you work. From no connections, no monetary support, and few teammates, I have created a network, a global village, of amazing, honest, hardworking, respectful people and over 800 cultural groups and noncultural organizations that have contributed to the success of World Heritage Cultural Center. We had a valuation done to calculate the value on all events we’ve produced for the past 12 year, 245 cultural shows across the U.S., a total of over 2,500 hours donated by worldclass cultural artists and this would’ve cost between $35M and $42M!

To me, though, its priceless to have all that love shared on a common ground WHCC has created to embrace diversity.

PGMAG: What are three top books that change your life?

SP: “Nora Roberts” – A novel that I didn’t know the name of at age 8, showed me a world where women had a voice beyond cultural tradition and accepting the fate that you were born into. It made me realize I had to find my own road to my destiny.

1985 – A book of positive quotes from many great minds. One that stuck with me always is, “Where there is a will, there is a way.”

Kind of breaking away from your question here, but when I was caught up with the idea of the person I want to be, as I am still growing into her, I wrote my own book, Colors of Fate, which was like a therapy session for my life, closing one chapter and creating a new one that I am now living. It also helped me learn that I cannot rush certain things, everything has its time, including the novel’s publication.

PGMAG: Finally, what would you say to your younger self?

SP: To my younger self, I must say that I hope I stay as strong as her and do her proud by growing up to be the woman we both see in the mirror.

PGMAG: Thank you so very much for your time today. We wish you more successes on your journey.

SP: Thank you for having me!

PGMAG: Please share your links with us.

SP: Please visit www.mywhcc. org for more information on World Heritage Cultural Center.