Invest in yourself and build a stronger community around you — Active farmers founder Ginny Stevens
It is a daily struggle for every individual to balance health and work. Especially for farmers in regional areas of Australia, it is a daydream to maintain their mental health and work. Staying active and fit in today’s world is the most important aspect in order to live longer and healthier because our surrounding does not cooperate the way it was doing a few decades back. Have you ever thought, how do farmers manage to stay fit or active with all other pressure that they carry upon them? I haven’t ever given a thought to it. But, Ginny Stevens did.
Ginny grew up on a farm in Tasmania, she has always been passionate about agriculture and the hard work a farmer puts in the farm. In her childhood, she used to help her father on his farm and is very much connected to farming. But, how agriculture and fitness?
Before, starting active farmers Ginny was working as a rural manager at Rabobank in Wagga Wagga. She had an eight-year career in Agribusiness banking which was something that led her to think about Active Farmers.
How did the idea of Active Farmers bloom in your mind?
In an interview she said, ‘I have always been very passionate about Agriculture and health, and given my concerns about the mental health statistics in rural Australia, I decided to combine these two passions and develop a program that provided a proactive and practical solution for the health, and particularly mental health of farmers and rural communities’.
Hence, she started Active Farmers in March 2015. She did struggle in the beginning in terms of time and balancing out her full-time work. She was running classes at Mangoplah and Uranquinty for two years along with her full-time work. It was necessary for her to expand the business and give her full attention. Hence, in January 2017, Active farmers partnered with Delta agribusiness who also sponsored the organisation towards expansion to other rural regions of Australia.
When asked what inspires her the most in her life, she replied in an interview to Creative consulting that, ‘To feel inspired is a great thing in life and I believe there is nothing more energising than feeling inspired to achieve something. Every day I am inspired to work on improving and maintaining my health so that I feel happy and energised, and this, in turn, motivates me to help others understand the importance of taking their health seriously. Given my concerns for the health, and in particular the mental health of farmers and rural communities I have become extremely enthused to provide a service that can help make rural Australian communities healthier, happier and more resilient’.
Connecting people with people is a great initiative and Ginny has done it so well.
‘I believe there is nothing more energising than feeling inspired to achieve something. Every day I am inspired to work on improving and maintaining my health so that I feel happy and energised’.
