Big Woman Tingz

GURLES (Girls Using Ubuntu Respect and Love for Entrepreneurial Success) is one of the major outputs of the USAID-funded Fi Wi Jamaica project being executed by the University of Technology, Jamaica since May 2015. In seeking to expand the window of opportunity for protection and promotion of human rights, especially among women and girls, the Fi Wi Jamaica Project forged a Women for Empowerment (WFE) network across Jamaica comprising mainly community-based organisations and non-governmental organisations committed to empowering women and girls.

GURLES was established to support entrepreneurship mainly among organisations/groups in the WFE network. Among other things, GURLES seeks to foster relationships with women in the WFE network by supporting entrepreneurial growth and building sisterhood, and incorporating love, respect and other core values embodied in the South African philosophy of Ubuntu.

Some of the other objectives include: building a viable network of female entrepreneurs; providing fora for both teaching and learning through mentorship, workshops, seminars and webinars; raising awareness about the complexities of issues affecting women; advocating and implementing viable solutions; and assisting in creating, funding, organising and promoting events that are spearheaded by women.

In 2017, women entrepreneurs in the Fi Wi Jamaica Masters-in-Residence Global Competitiveness training programme responded to a panel discussion on women, sex and power in the music industry by initiating GURLES in Music to support women in the music industry.

They were registered in March 2018 as a non-profit organisation and will, among other things, support women entrepreneurs in the music industry through the GURLES in Music committee led by Tandra Jhagroo, the only female studio engineer in Jamaica.

Coming out of GURLES in Music is Big Woman Tingz, the first album produced by the entity that is an artistic, eclectic and empowering body of work with a creative indie vibe that features 10 tracks from modern-day female artistes at various stages of their careers.

The album was initially created to improve and empower women mentally, spiritually and financially, but has emerged as a full-fledged movement which includes not only the performing members of GURLES, but also artistes Lisa Hyper, The Wixard and Arii Lopez.

Of note, each song on the compilation makes a powerful statement about gender equality and the strength of women. Apart from the artistes mentioned above, the project features Keisha Firmm, who speaks of her experience being trafficked, as well as CK, Minori Russell, Shivaun Rufus, Jamila Falak, Ghana, and Joan Webley.

In addition, the album was endorsed by singer, songwriter and producer Diana King and will be digitally distributed under her record label Think Like A Girl.