Judy van Niekerk: Forgiveness=Success
Judy van Niekerk: Forgiveness=Success
Interview by Shawne Duperon
Judy van Niekerk’s life story has captured global media, including The BBC, RTE and Cosmopolitan. After this best-selling author courageously shared her story of sexual abuse from her father, the reporting of sexual assault in Ireland increased 75%.
This best selling author, entrepreneur and philanthropist made history in South Africa by persuading the government to allow her to plant wine vineyards on Tribal land, creating hundreds of jobs and empowerment opportunities. She’s now empowering women through her latest project The Digital Bra, a revolutionary hi-tech solution to a serious problem for women the world over – making customized bras for women irrespective of their shape and size. Women deserve the perfect fit.
Committed to making a difference through her childhood challenges, Judy van Niekerk found her passion in empowering people to love and honor themselves regardless of what happened in their lives. The Digital Bra is not just a high-tech innovation. It allows women to finally embrace and love their bodies.
Exclusive Interview with Judy van Niekerk
OMTIMES is thrilled to share Judy van Niekerk’s Interview with Shawne Duperon
Shawne Duperon: The one thing that I love about you as a global leader is you always talk about things happening for you rather than to you. What does that mean to you?
Judy van Niekerk: It basically means to me that no matter what has happened, no matter what you have experienced, there are tremendous gifts that you can take away from those experiences. Not to diminish the suffering or the pain, but rather to take from those experiences something incredible that you can use in your life to create amazing experiences and amazing legacy. I have been able to do that, to look at horror and take beauty out of that.
Shawne Duperon: Would you be willing to share your past pain?
Judy van Niekerk: Sure. From a very young girl, I was incarcerated by my father and sexually abused from the age of three and raped from the age of about nine. All this time, I was deaf until I was about 11 or 12. The incarceration by my father was complete loneliness, complete isolation, and slavery and violation on every level that you can imagine from torture, being drugged, being shot, being stabbed, beaten, and made pregnant several times and pretty brutal home abortions. I was denied access to society, to schooling or anything like that. It was pretty horrific. I literally had to escape when I was in my early 20s.
