Seasons and Greetings

Welcome to Season's and Greetings! Today we welcome the wonderful Shefali Chandra (Jean Hollis married name) to share with us about her incredible life story, my name is Joy Carter today we discuss Shefali's early life in care, how she coped, overcame great difficulty facing her issues of dual heritage, and loss of her identity and birth family. Over many years she is a now is a pioneer helping other's who are marginalised in society today and working closely as an advocate for Dr Barnados We are also honoured to welcome our special Intro guest voice Chukumeka (Chukes) Maxwell, Founding Director & CEO Action To Prevent suicide he shares his thoughts on what a pioneering Spirit means to him. You can find out more about his amazing work at: www.actiontopreventsuicide.org Charity Project www.goodwillatps.org.uk Find out more about his life saving work.Here is the podcast time breakdown0-13Show intro and Shefali explains her humble beginnings and life in foster care.Shefali Chandra is Dual Heritage of Scottish mother and Indian father. Placed into the care of Dr Barnardo's homes as baby. Long-term fostered. She had a career in the Army, and worked in a FE college as a counsellor. Shefali currently Sits on National council of Barnardo's for Old Girls and Boys and has written work on her personal transracial journey that been included in several publications on the subject of adoption. 13 - 30Shefali’s life journey has left her passionate about helping others find their own voices and different ways to communicate and working with those who are marginalised in some way.We discuss what changes could be brought into help reform the system, how can things be improved for care leavers and young people in the foster care system as a whole especially as they navigate into adult life.30 – 44The Adoption Quiz! This new podcast feature is a short life journey inspirational quiz to find out more about our quests experience and for you too - so why not join in. This is both fun and moving for Shefali as she delivers some powerful wisdom about her foster family and how she confronted some difficult issues.I also ask: What is your favourite colour? What are you most proud of overcoming in your life so far? The rest of the quiz will be in a special podcast in series 3 when I interview other adults and young people in the adoption and care sphere.45 - 50We discuss life 'Seasons and Greetings' how can the natural seasons help us understand the challenging seasons we all have in our life of Winter to Spring to Summer.50Summing up.And if you are interested in Shefali and her creative work please please visitVamos Theatre Company Thank you for listeningPlease do share your thoughts on this amazing episode! Subscribe and let others knowWe look forward to hearing from you again,Adoption Arena Podcastxx