About Yara Fernandes : International Director for Space, Quantum, and Economic Innovation for a space mission helping girls from over 100 nations with Space Kidz India.

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it” -Albert Einstein

I have had requests to do public speaking, be in films, books and more. In the past I did not really like to draw attention to myself unless I had to raise awareness for a cause. If I would speak, I would not speak by myself so that at least if I get attention I lift somebody else up with me so they get attention too. After all, in the Southside of Chicago I was exposed to the mindset, “We lift as we climb.” However, I noticed that there were decisions being made that impacted human life and didn’t have women like me in the room when those decisions were being made.

Or maybe there was that one woman, but she may have been impacted by peer pressure or group think, an imbalance of power dynamics to prevent her voice from being heard that could have saved a life.

The one contrarian in the room that someone out there suffering is praying for to speak. Sometimes I would watch the news, and remember my friend who was a sole survivor of war from Sudan who was one of my first fans of different things I would say with my voice. People like him would cheer me on when I was able to get into different rooms. Maybe one day you’ll be in a room yourself that someone out there was praying for you to be in.

In more than one belief system, there is a concept “saving one life is like saving the entire world.” With my experience close up with people who did conflict resolution in historical events like the Space race and World War II when human life depended on it, I decided to finally accept a media interview by myself due to the deep respect I have for Kwamara Thompson & Women Invest in Women.

I talked about what I was taught by leaders who saved human life and how they taught me the importance of cultural intelligence in conflict resolution and community building.

I briefly mentioned how there is a relationship between economics and conflict that Stephanie Sylvestre spoke about, and my strategic approach to prevent the creation of orphans and sole survivors of conflict in the first place through economic development. I discussed our international space mission, Mission ShakthiSAT a real world example of global collaboration. I also shared about the Africa Quantum Consortium community, a pan-African Quantum initiative to unite the continent’s Quantum power. I gave a shout out to my genius friend from Angola, Eldridge De Melo, as usual.

I discussed how ensuring more than one nation is economically developed actually can help the entire world, giving an economic incentive for world peace to challenge those who are not motivated by ethics. As Yip Thy Diep Ta says, “make peace more profitable than war.”

Thank you to an aspiring diplomat Mohammad Haroon Qasemy from Afghanistan for answering my calls as I have more than one phone number now & a busy schedule. I wouldn’t be able to do all that I do without my team