Episode Details

Tamara Woodruff Bio:

Tamara is a self proclaimed Justice Warrior, who is, admittedly, still learning what that means. She spent 7 years on active duty with the Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer (plus a few more as a Naval Reservist). She’s now a Navy spouse who has lived all over the U.S. from Virginia to Rhode Island, Hawaii, Florida, Washington state, and Washington DC. She is currently living in the UK with her husband and two hilarious red headed sons. Her life is a constant series of transitions and she says she is absolutely terrible with change. She is an introvert, an enneagram 9, and a master of self doubt. A late adopter who is late to every party - but still somehow manages to be the life of it. She enjoys traveling, sitting on the couch doing nothing, and telling stories that make you laugh at her utter ridiculousness. She became a Compassionate Entrepreneur with Trades of Hope almost 5 years ago and it flipped everything she knew right on its ear. It’s been a journey that has challenged her faith (or maybe just her religion), and her thinking, and her view of herself. The work she does with Trades of Hope feeds her soul, stretches her mind, and connects her with women all over the world. It also ensures that she is surrounded (at least electronically) by other women who spur her on to bigger things - which keeps her from spending too much time sitting on the couch doing nothing.

You can connect with Tamara on Instagram or facebook

Support Tamara's work with Trades of Hope!

tradesofhope.com/tamarawoodruff

We begin with a check-in Tamara: she said things are weird in the UK—back in lockdown 3.0, a new strain of covid, people working from home, closures... She is missing out of Christmas in London as well as many other holiday events. But she says that they are doing okay.

Tamara almost doesn’t remember what it was like to be a naval officer. It was the place that laid the ground work for her work with Trades of Hope; The Navy was the first place she heard the words “human trafficking.” Every year they had a training on how to recognize the signs of human trafficking, this is before she knew why it should matter to her. The Navy also exposed her to a lot different places and cultures around the world and even within the US as the Navy is “a fabulous mixing pot.”

Maggie first met Tamara over five years ago while the Woodruffs were stationed in Washington State. It was also right at the beginning of Tamara’s work with Trades of Hope. Tamara had learned about TOH from someone at previous station and was just in the transition of moving to Washington when she was asked to host a party. Having just moved she was not in good place to host and didn’t know many people; she ended up "chickening out" and hosting Facebook party instead. This was before we all were hosting facebooks parties (due to covid). For her it was an awakening! Back then in 2015, TOH had artisans in 15 countries. Through that party she connected with a friend in Florida who had just returned from a prayer walk through the red light district in Mumbai, India, one of the largest red light districts in the world. Tamara had previously held many ideas of how women ended up in brothels up until this moment but what her friend told her changed her world. He told her the women in the red light district because they had been tricked. They usually came from large families in desperately improvised communities around India and Pakistan where they didn’t have enough resources to feed themselves. Someone would come into these regions and tell these families that they had an amazing opportunity for them; “I’m going