Riga, Latvia, with Forward Ladies

An unexpected twist of fate lead to me being able to go to Riga with the group from Forward Ladies, at the last minute!
Unlike Brussels and Milan where I had attended language and taster sessions on the countries, Latvia was completely new to me. The most I had heard of was their country being in the Eurovision Song contest! Yet on my return I can categorically say I was impressed by it the most.
The airport is just outside the city and we were soon at our hotel - the SAS Radisson on the banks of the river. We met with some ladies from the Latvian Investment and Development Agency. Almost immediately we could see the possibilities of trading with Latvia. As one of the newer members of the EU they are very keen to develop their country. One key area of development is in the beauty industry! Later we went to the beautiful Reval hotel for a dinner with The Latvian Business Women and International Women's Club. The level of English spoken was extremely high and made me feel very stupid for not even being able to say hello in Latvian. The ladies were very interested in us and we learnt that in Latvia the women are the stronger sex! They are actually far more evident in managerial jobs than elsewhere in the EU. The view from the top of the hotel was spectacular.
Next morning I went to the British embassy and met one of the team from UKTI. She confirmed that it would be possible for me to get speaking engagements there and also in the other Baltic states of Estonia and Lithuania. Again postnatal depression is a taboo there and at most sufferers may get anti-depressants but there are no support groups or specialist centres.
As a group we had a wonderful walking tour of the city and learnt a great deal about the history. It is a beautiful city and extremely clean with some wonderful architecture. One sad fact is that it has become a magnet for hen and stag weekends for Brits and the city is plagued at weekends by drunken groups and people urinating on their statues. It was good to show the Latvians that we are not all like that!
We also were entertained by some ladies form the Business and Professional Women's Club in Latvia who told us more about the country and gave us all a small gift a pretty posy of flowers.
See their site here:-
http://www.bpw-international.org/services/mentoring-program-latvia.htm#

We were entertained the second evening by the British Chamber of Commerce Latvia at Hotel de Rome. It was a fantastic evening with many people there - also a group from Coventry, UK. We were able to network and listened to various speakers.
A dynamic lady called Ingrida Bluma, formerly of HansaBanka spoke about her new mission in education. She made us laugh with her comment 'Women have to be twice as diligent to succeed in Latvia above men - but it's not that difficult!' They did have a well-loved female President who only stepped down due to state rules of office.
We also heard from Ieva Plaude who has built a business empire in Latvia called Kolonna. Thank you for making us so welcome!
The next day I had an appointment due to a lady I had spoken to on the first evening. I met with a lovely lady who amazingly owns the only private maternity clinic in Latvia with her mother and their second business is a publishing house! After a long converstaion we decide that I would write articles for two of their journals - one on maternity issues and another called 40plus for ladies who are now starting new businesses, etc. Our plan is to print my story and ask for Latvian women to share their stories of PND across the generations. This may form a new book and will aslo show that by leaving sufferers of PND it can lead to years of poor mental health. This should give us evidence to present to the EU to push for more services. They are also in touch with a TV company who have expressed interest in making a programme! So considering I wasn't supposed to be on this trip it was a great success!

Thank you to www.forwardladies.com for making this possible!

I am sure I shall be back in Latvia soon!

It was good to attend the debrief of the European trip in Leeds today and catch up on the positive outcomes of the visits.

www.elainehanzak.co.uk