It's kind of like a woman-crush..

You know how when you meet someone and immedietly feel like she's you're bestie-seperated-at-birth?! We'll that's how we felt with this inspiring woman.

She's all that woman and trully makes you feel like you can make a difference too.

Ready?! You have to meet her too : )

Ripple inspired by women who love nature

Q&A

#1 Hello 💚
Okay! Can you please tell us a little bit about who you are?

"I'm Tabea Oppliger, 47, born and raised in Papua, New Guinea (with my Swiss family), a tiny island, or actually quite a big island, above Australia. I grew up there, then went to Switzerland to do my studies. Live in Switzerland, now married to Mattias, with 3 kids, actually “young adults”."

#2 What kind of movement do you do?

“Basically, my whole life is a movement. I move all day, every day. I have a dog that I walk a lot, but I also love movement flow. I stretch a lot. I run. I surf & kitesurf. Actually, I'm also on my bike a lot.
I just love moving."

#3 How did you become passionate about helping women in prostitution?

“I met a prostitute face to face, and that was really what triggered owning the whole problem. Because I think if you hear about any injustice in the world, if you don't actually look it in the eye and you can turn away. Or - you can look at it and then just have this one encounter that just doesn't leave you. And it was when I met a prostitute face to face. I actually had my daughter in a rap, she was six weeks old, and this woman just approached me and she asked if she could kiss my baby. At first I was like, Who is this woman? What am I doing here? But I just let her in, and then she just poured out her whole story about how she had been taken advantage of in a very vulnerable situation. She wanted a job. Desperately. She came from South America.

She was promised a job in Switzerland, and then she said:
“I woke up to a nightmare."

These eyes, and just the whole encounter with her never left me, and that really moved me.”

#4 What is KitePride? Vision to bag.

“So me and my husband founded a social business, actually, as an answer to that whole encounter that I had with this woman who said I was promised a job, and instead of it being a dream job, it was a nightmare. And she said: ,"I don't need pity. I need a job". And this was really the trigger to start a social business, basically something where people could come into who had, who were disadvantaged, who have no chance in life, give them a job. And so we founded kite pride, basically took broken, discarded, old kites and turned them, turn them into bags, turned them into something new and beautiful, a second chance for kites and people. And these people receive training empowerment to to work on a job that they're proud of. So the whole name - KitePride, we used kites and we gave them a new sense of pride.”

#5 What is it like running a business with your hubby?

“He saw my passion. He saw my drive. I was just unstoppable. After that encounter with that woman, it just didn't leave me. I think it was also the mother hormones going, there was so much more than care. There was really a passion to eradicate this injustice of exploitation of women bought and sold. When I thought that I'm living in a century where modern day slavery had been abolished, and here it was - in my face, and I just couldn't. I couldn't stand the fact that there are so many women, men, children, anything you name it, just being used as commodities. I anyway had a huge sense of injustice all the time, and this was something where I felt like I needed to do something. Matti saw that. Actually at first he babysat the kids a lot of times for me to go into brothels and really have more and more encounters with people, because I'm always about being hands on and facing the problem in a way that you ask questions to the people in the problem or in the situation. Because if you're going to do something, and it doesn't help them, at the end of the day, you need to ask questions. What do you need? And so he saw that. He is way more strategic than I am. I'm the visionary and he basically, kind of cleaned up behind me. He was like, Have you thought of this? Have you thought of that? And then I said, Look, you need to come on board. I actually need you to build this business. Because I'm, I'm the Pioneer. He is two, but he's way more than one really planning things, thinking them through, whereas I'm already jumping to the next thing. So we really compliment each other, and that's how we joined."

”

#6 What do people NOT know about Swiss people?

“Oh, wow. I think everyone knows everything about Swiss people, because they're just so known for their quality, for everything being perfect, at least from the outside. But maybe what people don't know is that Swiss people are once you know them, their word is a word. They really follow through with what they say. They won't promise something and not deliver. And this is something that I think you oversee, if you just come as a tourist. They might seem a bit cold, always on the go, super fast, focused, not really looking around, but at the same time. They're very, very generous. And again, their word is a word.”

#7 What are your 3 top motherhood guidelines?

“That's a hard one. It's actually sentences.

1. Raising my kids I always ask them. Whenever they wanted to do something very daring, I would ask them - Do you feel safe?
And I would kind of like throw the question back at them, because that brings you immediately into self reflection. Obviously not if they're balancing over something very dangerous and they don't see the danger, but just like jumping from a high place, but it's safe, they can jump into water, and they’re like, “Can you jump from there? Do you feel safe? Have you checked everything?” It's just really teaching them a lot of self reflection.
2. And then there's another phrase that I always say, Don't tame them, train them. So basically, empower them to do these things. There was this funny thing in Switzerland, you know, if you're a bit wild and free, people kind of look at you, like, what are you doing? So kids running around, going up and down moving trains or swinging around the poles. It's like a no go in Switzerland. I let my kids do it. And I was like, you know, if they fall, they might just have a bump somewhere, but it's not dangerous, dangerous. So it's like, just let them be kids.
3. And the third thing is definitely just be truthful at all times. I always say to my kids, don't lie me. I'll know anyway. And that's something that is important to me. If you go through life being truthful, you're set up.

#8 Okay, here's a hard question.. How do you deal with such a big unsolved issue like prostitution?

“Yeah, prostitution is so huge that you just think, what does me helping one person really do? Or does it really make a difference? But it's really about that - one baby step at a time. It's one drop in a bucket, two drops in a bucket. It might take way longer, but -

you just have to see the one and that helps me.

Every one person is somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, somebody's mother even, and just knowing that, and just taking it one baby step at a time, that's the only thing that really keeps you going.
”

Ripple natural organic lounge collection for women

#9 Do you ever get discouraged with those baby steps?

"Yeah, there's a lot of discouragement, especially when you've given your all for somebody, and you realize that they want to, but they somehow can't. They just don't find the strength to really step out of the cycle. Even though there aren't many examples that I have, when you've given your everything and then you feel like you don't see any difference, that can really discourage you. But you just really have to see the one. Again, the one that is successful, the one that is moving forward, the one that is now completely independent.

#10 How did you start raising money for women in prostitution?

“Actually, it was funny. My mom was the first one to donate.

I had a conversation with her that I wanted to start a nonprofit and she was like, Okay, I'll be the first one to donate! It really started with a small group of women. We just started to talk about the issue, and everyone was like, we can't do anything. I said - Yes, we can. We can do a second hand sale. Everybody brings their clothes, we ask for an entry.. Then it moved on to small fundraising events.
So one of the fundraising events that we did was running in high heels to really raise awareness! From speaking to actual prostitutes, they told me that they had to wear high heels, and we're not allowed to remove them all day, every day, sometimes 12 hours straight, and they had to stand in those high heels. And it was just so crazy for me to think about it, and that's why they were in so much back pain. And I said, Well, everybody runs but to actually really raise awareness for the topic, people will ask, Why are you running in high heels? And then you can tell them about the cause. So we had high heels for rent, and even men strapped them to their feet with duct tape. It was very funny. And kids ran barefoot also to do something completely different. It was such a success.
”

#11 What can we each do in our communities to help other women?

“I think I'll really go back to that sentence. It's about the one, and do we even see them? Oftentimes, we're so focused with our lives, we're so busy doing what we're doing, and we might be overwhelmed too with problems. But it's often - here’s another thing I teach my kids a lot, is to look up. Look around. Like, what is in front of my feet? I don't have to fly to the other side of the world or go and build wells or adopt an orphanage or whatever, but I can see the one. The one single mom who's struggling, who needs someone to pick up her child because she can't. She's working. It's really about just looking up, looking around, what is in front of my feet, and doing that. Because otherwise we'll be overwhelmed, and then we won't do anything.”

#12 What is nature to you?

“Nature is life. Nature is breathing. I couldn't live without nature. Anytime I feel stressed, I just go outside.
Yeah, nature is life.
”

#13 What is adventurous or extreme for you?

“Surfing in high waves, and strong winds. It's because you just feel the elements of nature. Again, nature is life. Nature makes me come alive, but especially navigating the elements that you can't control. That's when I feel so small, when I know there's just somebody out there who's in control, and I can just submit to it, become one with it.
But huge waves scare me. Strong winds, kite surfing in big waves scare me. You just feel so small.”

#14 What does it feel like to wear Ripple?

“Ripple is nature. Ripple breathes with me. It lets me move freely. I'm such a free person. I just want to feel like nothing's restraining me. And even though it hugs your body, it just feels so free, because you can feel that it's natural, that it's organic.”

#15 What do you like about ripple yoga wear?

“I love the values that ripple yoga wear has. I love that it's sustainable, it's natural, it's a group of women wanting to empower another woman and make her feel free and whole. and, and, and just, you just love wearing it".