Modern Goddess Magazine

Andrea Gutwirth
Founder and Executive Director
SoulTalk Foundation (www.soultalk.org)

A little over three years ago I met Andrea Gutwirth and she told me how she had faced her own adversity and from that, grew her passion for helping women help themselves in emotional and relationship crises.

16 years ago Andrea started SoulTalk, a charitable foundation for women that didn’t want to remain in pain, fear, isolation or feeling unloved, overwhelmed and lost at what they should do next or who they should talk to.

She explained to me that the foundation was for women facing crisis through separation, divorce, custody, finance, loss of career, affairs, abandonment, loss of a loved one or any other kind of crisis that strips them of the structure of the life they knew, not to mention the devastation that goes along with this unbearable time. No one should feel alone and unaware of the options, choices and solutions that are possible. That, with awareness, courage, spirit and professional personalized care, all women can regain their power, passion and life.

What I love about Andrea’s foundation, SoulTalk is that it’s not about remaining stuck in our crisis… it’s about moving forward. Andrea is empowering women to take control of their life and empowering them to move forward.

Andrea started with a support group for women of all nationalities and cultures. Then came a 24/7 Hotline and website. Ten years later after helping thousands of women a miracle happened! A 5 bedroom home was donated for SoulTalk to use as a Loving Home and provide temporary accommodation to women in crisis.

The home needed to be renovated and through Andrea’s own strength and determination she developed innovative ways of having the house completely renovated. By selling each room of the Loving Home, she was able to fill it with everything from furniture, linen, crockery, appliances etc. From there Andrea and her team developed a whole operational manual that is built around being a complete resource centre and is based on solutions. All their services are free beginning with their counselling, educational programs and all resources necessary to move women from tragedy to triumph!

I am inspired by Andrea because she’s so passionate about SoulTalk and really promotes her cause. At the same time she is also willing to extend a helping hand to other women who are passionate about their cause or business.

I asked Andrea a couple of questions about what and who inspires her, here is what she had to say:-

Nicole: What inspires you?

Andrea: I love those moments that come from our toughest issues, difficulties and problems in this world, both about us personally and about other’s lives. The fact that with passion, purpose, drive, persistence, diligence, action, congruency, being authentic, never giving up and combining that with plenty of giving, sharing, feeling humble and grateful, we can have, do, be, anything we want in our life that can make a difference with ourselves, our neighbors and the world. This is when we truly appreciate all the smiles, happiness and joy we can create because we have a comparison and we get to feel so good because of our taking our worse day and making it our best! Then ‘Sharing it Forward’ multiplies and magnifies what is really possible!

Nicole: Which women inspire you?

Andrea: Any woman that creates and produces their mission and vision seriously and follows what I have shared above and simply makes it all happen for the good of others. There are thousands of women in this world that have done this in our world and presently doing so also. I am in awe of each of these women I know in many of these cases that they had to dig deep to find their own courage, strength and their own inner voice first and then help others find theirs!

Nicole: What are some of your achievements this year?

Andrea: This year alone, SoulTalk has over 100 new updates and counting!

1. Our new bilingual book called “Women and Money” which will help us be more self sustaining as well as be our foundational tool to create financial workshops for our whole community.

2. Our first Gold Donation Card in partnership with HKCSS / Wisegivng / HSBC and 7-Eleven. Simply taking this card to any 7-Eleven 24/7, people can make a donation simply by having our Bar Code swiped. SoulTalk is the first to have this Donation Card.

3. Our Official Song which will now be promoted in all HMV shops in Hong Kong plus being sold worldwide by CDBaby in America by Donating to Download.

Nicole: What are your future plans for SoulTalk and yourself?

Andrea: SoulTalk would love to bring on board a few other vital positions. Their expertise, passion, commitment and energy will definitely take SoulTalk to a whole new level that would simply help us to help even more women in crisis. These positions would be: Charity / Business Development Manager, PR / Marketing Manager / Charity / Fundraising Manager. My role will remain as Founder and Executive Director, however, handing over the day to day operations to more caring professional women in our community will take SoulTalk to a whole new and even more exciting level. So, if you know anyone that fits our needs, please do share our message. Thank you!

If you live in Hong Kong and are interested in talking with Andrea about one of these positions, please contact Andrea at andrea@soultalk.org.

Thanks Andrea for inspiring and empowering women!