Young woman with a passion to transform lives

Loureen Juma, author of the recently launched motivational book, titled It’s You is a jack of all trades. Apart from being an author, Loureen is a graphic designer, a singer and a motivational speaker.

Born Zubeda Juma, 23 years ago in Arusha, Loureen discovered her calling in writing and motivational speaking through Compassion International, a Christian humanitarian aid child sponsorship organisation dedicated to the long-term development of children living in poverty around the world.

She spent a better part of her childhood with the organisation after her father disowned her for converting to christianity.

It’s You tells a lot about her. She wrote the book to motivate and teach people about life and the fact that it is one’s responsibility to make their life better.

“I have written about various angles of life and this has helped me realise that I am personally responsible for my own life,” she says, adding “I hope people will understand they are responsible about everything that happens in their lives. That is why the book is called ‘It’s You.’ As a child she always wanted to become an international public speaker and an author. She has so far written two books, her first one ‘Amazing point to note’.

It’s You, she says can completely transform one’s life if one takes time to critically read it.

“I have seen a lot of people who live all their lives blaming others or blaming circumstances for their failures in different aspects of life.

People blame their origin, their past, their friends, everything around them thinking that their failure isn’t their fault while the honest truth is, their failure is their very own fault.”

The book consists of 10 chapters in which she offers advice on how to overcome the dependency syndrome. She tells people to live positively and carry their burdens.

“The first book wasn’t a testimonial of my life but it was a collection of ideas and points that I noted from my pastor’s sermons over faith. It is a small book of about 50 pages which didn’t go viral like the second one did. I was an amateur author at the time,” she says.

Loureen says Dr Ben Carson, an American author and Joel Nanauka from Tanzania inspired her writing talent.

Ben Carson is her inspiration because he writes about his own life and experiences. “His books are a testimonial of his life and so are mine.”

Joel is her role model because he inspires youth by writing on effective living and life modification, which is what Loureen wants and does herself.

Hers was not a happy childhood and that’s why she writes about it to teach and motivate others.

Her father was an alcoholic who did not take good care of his family. Going without food on some days was something they had been used to.

“We lacked parental care in my family. My father was an alcoholic, my mother was a housewife and so we lived in abject poverty.”

Loureen who converted to Christianity after joining Compassion International went to Felix Mrema Secondary School under full sponsorship of Compassion International.

She joined the Institute of Accountancy Arusha in 2012 for a certificate course in accountancy.

Loureen calls on authors to write so much for the society, to fill it with knowledge and make it a better place. She advises Tanzanians to make reading a habit inorder to acquire knowledge.

She says a reading culture should be inculcated in children from a young age. She believes it is at a young age where a lot of foundations can be established in youngster’s minds.