How did it begin?
Where did it begin?
To answer this, I must start at the beginning.
My name is Juliet Awang, I am the founder of Woowi.
To bring some understanding of how this began I will give you a brief insight into my history. I am a single mum to three boys, and my career has always been supporting vulnerable children and adults in one service or another. Over the years my own life brought overwhelming stress to me, and for some time it became too much. I had become depressed and was angry at the world. I did not want to be that person and was determined in my pursuit of bringing peace to my mind.
I discovered and learnt mediation and mindful living. And my life changed. Stress left and was replaced by the peace I was searching for. Several years after learning these new skills I took qualifications to become a mindfulness teacher, and I started my own company. Developing and delivering mindfulness programs to children and adults.
Where it began, well that was during a session I was delivering at an SEN children’s school. The day started as normal, I prepare the room, eleven mats, one for me at the front of the room and ten other mats spaced out in front of me. The children entered, this was our third session together and the children had accepted my presence in their school. I high-fived some of the children as they came through the door, others I would respectfully not high-five (not their thing) and would say hello to each of them. I sat at the front of the room teaching the children different mindfulness techniques. There were ten children and three support staff; each child sat on a mat of their own. Some of the children were accompanied by their support staff, each had their own different challenges. The lesson had gone well, and we were nearing the end, I sat on my mat explaining the breath; smell the flower, blow out the candle.
Up bounded a sprightly young boy, him and I had a good rapport. He came and sat tight beside me and grabbed my arm, he innocently began playing with my watch. I watched him watch the watch and it helped him to do the breathing technique I was showing them.
The idea was borne.
I went home, put pen to paper, writing and planning my invention.
Some fortuitous events later led to me pitching the idea to investors. I was successful and the next stages of this amazing journey began.
The journey after investment is in stages. Something I have learnt in the two years it has been since I first received investment is that it is a lot of work bringing a product to market. So much goes into the final products you see on the shelfs. The process is hard, but it is also super exciting to see what has been in my head grow into something real.
The first stage was to prove there was a market for the solution that I offered.
We collated all the information and research available in-order to prove there was an issue and a market for this product.
The next stage was to validate the product. Test and prove that mindfulness techniques in the form of digital inventions can have an impact. We have held forums and workshops with parent’s groups and several schools.
We have worked with the parents and children to make sure our product is everything a child would want and that it would benefit their progression. All our research and finding have been met with positive feedback.
We are beginning the final stages of creating this product.
Our Woowi team are busy building mindful products to bring into the lives of children and young people struggling with some of the challenges presented currently in their everyday lives.
Our Woowi.App is under-going development and will be with you all soon.
Our Woowi bears; Nawny, Pabs, Dj and Wulie have been brought to life in our ‘Wellness with Woowi’ children’s book.
Our Woowi bears will come alive again in our Woowi.App, they will be there to support and guide your child/ren to discover self-managing mindful techniques to help bring balance and harmony to everyday living.
The Woowi journey is exciting and full of hope. We would like to thank all the many people and schools that have supported us so far and continue to so. We couldn’t do this without your support.
Special thanks to; all the parents, staff, and especially the children. To the schools that continually support us; Millstead Primary, Abbots Lea and West Kirby Residential. We could not achieve this without you.