Interview with Kayla Fruchtman, Founder of The Her Initiative
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Kayla Fruchtman. I’m 27, live in Denver, Colorado but grew up in Asheville, North Carolina. I spend a lot of my time traveling (whether internationally for work or adventuring around the mountains with my friends), hanging out with my dog Alfie, and trying to stay active in this busy city with yoga, ballet barre, and spin classes! Also a big fan of black coffee, French fries, and Friday Night Lights.
Can you give a brief span of your education/career up until this point?
I graduated from a small liberal arts college in East Tennessee called Carson-Newman University. My degrees were in Religion and Psychology and I always had strong interest in social justice issues. I had a crazy opportunity junior year to write a thesis at Oxford University titled “William Knibb: British Baptist Missionary and Unexpected Feminist.” I credit that paper to my interest in empowering women through education and the intersection of humanitarian issues and religion. I dropped out of grad school (!!!) to move to Denver with the hopes of getting into the international non-profit sector. My first job was working for a non-profit called Asian Hope (maybe link to www.asianhope.org?) , that uses education as prevention for child exploitation. I learned all the ins and outs of non-profit development which set me up to get my dream job working for an international clean water non-profit, Healing Waters (www.healingwaters.org). I’m now the Director of Development and Marketing for Healing Waters as well as the founder of The Her Initiative.
What is The Her Initiative?
The Her Initiative is Healing Water’s answer to empowering women through clean water. Gender inequality directly correlates with water, as women and girls are often the ones responsible to walk miles to get water. This not only takes away from time spent in school or working, but often the “water walk” can be incredibly dangerous and has been connected to many unfortunate cases of sexual assault and rape. When clean water is located in a girl’s community she immediately has hope for her future- she can attend school and she is much safer. We don’t just bring clean water to a community. Women are often the one’s running our water purification system, being trained to operate the system as a micro-business. They learn how to budget and run a successful business and it often empower them to start other small businesses as well. The third component is our female-specific health & hygiene curriculum, Clothed In Strength & Dignity, that focuses on sensitive topics regarding women’s health.
What inspired you to start The Her Initiative? How did the idea come about?
I’ve always been passionate about women’s issues and as I became more informed on how one of our most basic needs, water, can so drastically effect a women’s life, I knew I needed to do something. I already had this amazing platform, Healing Waters, that was doing such good work, so I wanted to educate women just like myself that we could have a big impact by creating a tribe of women who wanted to support women in the developing world through clean water and health & hygiene education!
Is the Her Initiative just for women and girls?
Nope! Because I’m into marketing by trade, I knew this would be something that would resonate with women and girls. So I branded it to really appeal to us! We are passionate, smart, creative, empathetic people who want to be a part of something bigger. I knew that women would be the ones moved, because as women that is what we do- we move to get things done. However, we have a lot of awesome men on board with what we do and men and boys are also directly impacted by our work! We just launched a campaign called #MenforHer because if we want to see real change, it’s going to take all people – not just one gender. I also believe that by empowering women in the developing world, we are also empowering men and boys. They are learning to respect these women and they too are living healthier, happier lives.
What keeps you motivated?
Yikes. This is a hard question. My faith is probably number one. This has evolved in so many ways in the past few years and yet the foundation of it is love and grace so I’m motivated if I can see both of these things growing stronger in my life. I’m a huge relationship person so my friendships and my family are constantly motivating me. If I didn’t have their support, I don’t think I would have ever started Her. Lastly, I’m super motivated by my team! In the past few months I was able to bring on two strong women to carry out the mission of The Her Initiative and Healing Waters and its been so fun! Someone once told me that you should always hire people that are smarter than you and while that might be intimidating, that is what I did and I’m constantly blown away by their creativity and aptitude! Oh, and the fact that Alfie comes to work with me and that I can always snuggle with him on the couch after a long day.
What is the most challenging part about what you do? Most rewarding?
The most challenging part is trying to maintain a health work/life balance. When I was first getting The Her Initiative going, I was constantly hustling and had basically created a second full time job for myself. It was fun to see the fruits of my labor but it was also exhausting and I quickly learned that it wasn’t sustainable. When you have a job that you love (which I’ve heard is rare) it makes it a little harder to put it off to the side to make sure that I’m taking care of myself. One of my favorite quotes is “Grace will take you places hustling can’t” and when I first read that it was like a huge slap in the face- I had to give myself, my body and soul, grace. If I didn’t I was going to burn out.
The most rewarding thing is the relationships that have been built through Her. I’ve met some of the most incredible women who have dedicated their lives to serving the poorest of the poor. One of the most inspiring women I know, Armina, sold everything she owned and moved to one of the poorest communities in Guatemala with her husband because they heard of the need and knew that the children there were starving and sick. It’s been incredible to get to resource them with clean water and hygiene education and it help them have such a big impact on this community. I also have made some of the most amazing friendships with women here who support Her. We’ve created a tribe of women who are passionate about empowering other women and it’s been the most beautiful thing to see happen!
Was it difficult getting The Her Initiative off the ground?
To be honest, not so much. There were a few setbacks here and there but for the most part, it just came together. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t take a ton of work but I think that clean water and empowering women is a pretty easy sell. When I was first looking to find #herinfluencers, at times I felt discouraged. I would email a lot of women that I looked up to and would quickly get responses that they were too busy to take anything else on. But it was very clear when the right women started getting on board. Take Desiree Hartsock (www.desireehartsock.com) and Kathleen Barnes (www.carriebradshawlied.com), for instance. Both of these women have incredibly busy schedules and are powerhouses in their industries and yet they felt called to be involved. They have become dear friends and huge proponents of the work we are doing!
What are your aspirations for the future?
My biggest hope for The Her Initiative is that more and more women and children will be empowered through the work that we are doing and that more women here will feel compelled to be involved. I think it’s easy to try and measure success by numbers of supporters or numbers of followers on social media, but in the end it all goes back to how many people’s lives were touched by the work we are doing, both in the countries we work and here in the US!
Any words of advice for aspiring women entrepreneurs and leaders?
From the famous words of my favorite band, The Avett Brothers: “Decide what to be and go be it!” Just do it. Take that thought, or dream, or idea and do it! I think we can often get stuck in our own heads or too scared to share our “crazy idea,” but what a shame it would be if we didn’t offer those crazy ideas, those gifts, to the world! Your idea might be exactly what the world needs!
Are there any other missions or areas of need that you are passionate about?
In general, I’m just very passionate about the developing world and the issues of poverty (material, social, emotional, spiritual) that affect people. Just being a part of the social justice world has opened my eyes to all sorts of issues and makes me think twice when it comes to things like where I should buy clothes (check out Tribe Alive!) or where I should travel to (did you know that Orphan tourism is a thing?!). I also think it’s incredibly important that if I’m going to dedicate my life to being a humanitarian, I also need to care about the earth. We need to be good stewards of this planet just as much as we need to take care of the people on it!
What do you suggest we can do to help?
Just do something. Figure out your passion and how you can connect that to helping others. Maybe it’s volunteering at an afterschool program for kids in your neighborhood? Maybe it’s being a foster mom for rescue pups? Maybe it’s joining The Her Initiative’s #25for25 campaign and giving $25 a month to bring clean water and health & hygiene education to 25 women and children? There are so many things that we can do with our time, our money, and our resources!
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I really love spending as much time outside, whether that’s taking Alfie to the dog park or going on a hike. I also love finding a great patio to drink good beer with friends, pretending to play the ukulele, and playing DDR with my nephew and nieces.
Anything else we should know?
Salted Oreo ice cream is God’s gift to women.
Lastly, what does authentic mean to you and in what ways are you authentic?
I think being authentic means being the real you, whoever that may be. I think it means standing up for the things that matter to you and not being ashamed of that. To me, it is really important to differentiate between being authentic and being vulnerable. Both of those words have become “buzz words” in our culture and I think people often get them confused. Being authentic is always a must for women. It is something we should strive for. It’s a gift to ourselves and to others. Vulnerability can also be a gift, but is one that not everyone around you deserves. Vulnerability is intimate and isn’t something you have to share with everyone. Be authentic with everyone, and vulnerable with those who deserve it.
This has been a huge lesson for me when trying to navigate relationships in an authentic way. I crave relationships and intimacy and I think it is very easy to build false intimacy (both platonic and romantic) by being “vulnerable” when really authenticity is what is really needed. Authenticity comes first, vulnerability comes later.
