Despina is a Bellydance, Yoga and Pilates teacher, a writer for children and of non-fiction, and a passionate advocate for animal emancipation. She feels that our cousins in fur, feathers and fins with whom we share the planet should ALL be able to live happy and free.
Poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox's words below best describe how Despina feels about advocating for animals:
"And I am my brother's keeperDespina's only regret in life is that she wasn't lucky enough to have been born and bred vegan. Still, she's vegan now and her motto is: ONWARD AND UPWARD!!
And I will fight his fight,
And speak the word for beast and bird,
Till the world shall set things right."
Find out more about Despina on her website, and those of you with doggie friends will want to check out her free online book Little Dog in a Big City.
Fawn is a self proclaimed fitness junkie, personal trainer, chocoholic, farm raised meat eater turned vegan and passionate animal rights advocate. Fawn has been involved in many animal rights initiatives and charities. She now runs a vegan personal training business (www.meangreenpt.com) and works to bring awareness surrounding health and fitness as it pertains to a vegan diet.
Greg has always been interested in finding out how the world works and searching for ways to make it better. His first foray into social change was to join the Australian Spelling Reform Association, to rid the world of the blight of illogical English spelling. Since then he progressed through more substantial issues and has now been a vegan socialist for many decades.
He has been on the committee of the Vegan Society NSW for five years and has seen the Society grow in strength and effectiveness greatly during that time. His medium term hope is to create an active, campaigning national vegan organisation.
Hilary was raised a meat eater but turned vegetarian in her early teens and vegan shortly after. She learnt the love of animals from her mother who is a committed wildlife rescuer with WIRES.
At age 14, with the help of her step-father, Hilary rescued a lamb from a meat production farm and hid 'Annie' in the backyard. By time her Mum got home she had composed a Powerpoint presentation explaining how keeping Annie would be just like having another pet dog. Annie grew to 138kg and became a part of her family, sleeping at the end of the bed and climbing on the couch - just like a dog. Annie's life was documented and can be viewed on YouTube. 'Annie the sheep' is living proof that animals are emotionally intelligent and anatomically identical to an oridinary house pet. To this day Hilary will never understand how a person can differentiate one animal from another.
With the ongoing support of her friends and family Hilary has been vegan for eight years now and has previously been involved with Animal Liberation and PETA.
Jane joins the Vegan Society NSW Committee in her 6th year of being vegan. She is interested in establishing a new national vegan organisation, a vegan mentoring program, and organising some exciting fundraising events. Jane is currently collaborating with Noah Hannibal of UPROAR to create a new Australian vegan magazine, launching at World Vegan day in November.
Jane thinks it is important to recognise that as individuals, we are embedded in economic, social, technological and cultural contexts. These contexts play an important part in shaping our behaviours and practices. For this reason, Jane believes that opportunities for change exist in the interplay between individuals and their contexts.
Jane encourages people to try going vegan, for a day, for a week ... for however long and for whatever reason, just give it a go and see for yourself! She is always happy to help others with tips and advice. She looks forward to meeting you at the next Vegan Society NSW event.
I am a vegan, passionate about showing others what a wonderful life choice veganism is. I am vegan for the planet, for the animals, for the environment and for my health and wellbeing. My lifelong dream has been to have an animal sanctuary - a safe haven for 'discarded' animals. A good friend's wise words to me once were 'Hold your dream close to your heart' - I do just that.
I believe in living a cruelty free, compassionate lifestyle. By making wise consumer choices, I attempt to reduce my impact on the environment. I have discovered that leading by example is the most effective way to open people's eyes as to the cruelty involved in our use of animals.
In her first term as a committee member, Layla is looking forward to meeting many past, present and future members. She is excited to be acting on her beliefs. Layla loves her home sprouting dome and home grown produce. Her high speed blender provides her with a happy start to each day.
When Layla is not practicing yoga she is cooking vegan treats and sourcing new and interesting recipes. She believes in sustainability and supports local organic produce suppliers. Growing up in a bushy suburb allowed for contact with lots of different animals which has helped to give her a love of all living creatures.
One of her many dreams is to travel the world teaching yoga.
Maria has been vegan since her teen years when she first made the connection that all animals deserve to experience the fullness, freedom and joy of life on their own terms rather than being considered commodities.
She wants to show others that a vegan lifestyle is healthy, easy and packed full of benefits for people, non-human animals and the environment. She enjoys photography, travel, rifling through flea markets, swing & jazz music and trying new recipes to give to her family and friends. She has a particular interest in caring for special needs animals and shares her home with a personality-plus blind cat whose name is Ophelia.
Michael joined the Vegan Society NSW Committee in 2010. Over the coming year his focus will be to implement a more streamlined membership system. He hopes to leverage some synergy to achieving a good outcome through his role in the NSW Greens Membership Working Group.
An IT project manager with a global financial services company by day, Michael works in his spare time to make the world a little better each day.
In April 2011 Michael was officially sanctioned by Dr Will Tuttle to be a World Peace Diet facilitator and is always available to run presentations and workshops on what he believes to be one of the most important books of the last decade.
Having visited Africa in 2010 and spent some time at a centre for children affected by HIV/AIDS he has a particular interest in working for a better world for African children. Acting for local children he is also a member of the Make A Wish Foundation.
Michael enjoys getting out of Sydney and visiting Farm Sanctuaries, in particular Cariad Farm in Northern NSW of which he is the Treasurer. He believes that connecting with the farmed animals is a way to show people the power of choosing a vegan lifestyle.
Michael hopes to be part of a vegan community based on or around Cariad Farm in the future and is always interested in hearing from people who might like to be involved in that concept.
Nami has been a vegetarian since birth and has always deeply cared about the rights of animals. It was only around a year ago when she learned about the horrific cruelty of the dairy industry and decided to change to a vegan lifestyle. She is currently in her last year of high school and one day would like to be a lawyer for the animals. Nami promotes and educates as many people as she can about the benefits of switching to a cruelty free diet.
Tam is unequivocally an animal lover, she is rarely seen without her dog, Caleb, who most have now come to refer as her son. Tam is currently finishing her communications degree at UTS where she was part of the UTS Enviro Collective.
Tam loves to learn and has an ever-growing list of courses she hopes to undertake, from nutrition to photography, film production, web and graphic design, community service, counselling, sign language and environmental science. She loves languages for their ability to help us to not only communicate with each other but to mediate the world and hopes to turn her scattered Japanese into fluent sometime soon. Tam also has a never ending list of projects including making a film, writing a graphic novel, crocheting gloves, a scarf and a beret, making accessories, making rockabilly clothes, designing bags, painting, blogging and making her own skincare products.
She believes in living by example and eventually hopes to move away from inner Sydney and dedicate her life to helping others less fortunate. Her life direction is not based on making her footprint the least impactful but her impact the most positive. She dreams of having a rescue shelter open to anyone who has suffered adversity and needs a loving home. She loves to cook and is very interested in organic and local produce and hopes to become (somewhere close to) self-sustained.
Tamara is the Events Coordinator for the Vegan Society NSW. She loves bringing vegans together and supporting vegan businesses. She is very excited about the future of the vegan community and is happy to help bring Melbourne into Vegan Australia when it is established. She has been passionately vegan for 17 years - it is her absolutely favourite part of herself! She feels that veganism is much more than just a dietary choice. It is a belief in equal kindness, compassion and love for all that encompasses every aspect of life. She views the world as an essentially beautiful place and believes all living creatures should have the opportunity to live and enjoy that beauty. She happily dedicates her life to creating that reality.
Tara first became a vegetarian at the age of twenty and only lasted two weeks - she has been a dedicated and vocal vegan ever since. Spending the first few years as a vegan and animal rights activist living in Melbourne, Tara started her campaigning and activism with groups like Edgar's Mission and Animal Liberation Victoria. She spent just over a year volunteering with Edgar's Mission, travelling across Victoria with Pam Ahern, Priscilla Pig and Timmy Lamb, educating the public on issues such as vegan advocacy and the sentience of animals - and to think she spent her upbringing whinging at the thought of being in the same room as a dog.
She then became the US university tour coordinator for the documentary film A Delicate Balance, organising screenings of the film across USA universities, such as Harvard and Princeton and educating students and the public about the benefits of a plant-based diet.
Now a passionate Sydney resident, Tara has been on a mission to promote Sydney's "Veganess" since moving here.
She is working towards a career in film scholarship and is currently researching a paper on the representation of guilt and animal consumption in The Silence of the Lambs.
She is looking forward to being involved with the Vegan Society NSW and continuing to advocate veganism and animal rights.
Tim decided to go vegan in 1996 after reading a pamphlet called "Why Vegan?" and learning about the cruelty of the factory farming industry. Originally from the US, he moved to Australia in February of 2010 and quickly became involved in Sydney's vegan community. Working in the software development industry, Tim has brought his interests in technology and compassionate living together by helping to create websites such as vegaroo! and VegPledge, and now will be lending a hand to the Vegan Society NSW website.