Ophelia Uke
She’s a writer and a speaker. She empowers women and men to be strong. Her brand name,,, “Soul Empowerer Enterprise”. Her book is titled… Cherish Your Challenges. It’s a book of affirmations designed to empower, encourage, support and uplift the mind, body and spirit.
Ophelia said… I just want to install the confidence back into woman and men of all ages, religions, color or creed. In order to do this for them, the women and man who felt or feel like they are worthless; who has a lack of confidence within themselves; who grew up with insecurities and self loathing… I first had to deal with these demons myself before I was able to instill their security back into them. I had to dig deep within my soul and I began building myself back up. . I want to dig deep and try to pull out their positive aspects and to let them know… “They Are Worth Something.” I want to let them know… “They are beautiful Inside and Out.” I have a daughter and three sons. I want to try to instill my “Soul Empower” into her . I want to be prepared for that day when my daughter comes up to me and say she needs help. I will be there for her.
Growing up, I heard a lot of negative things and I held onto it. Unfortunately, it followed me from my childhood into an adult. It was actually the birth of my daughter (I have four children – three boys and one girl, my daughter is the youngest) – when she looked at me for the first time, that’s when I realized that I was really broken and extremely damaged. In order for me to teach her how to become a confident woman, I had to fix me. My daughter was born in 2008 so I tell people, I am six years strong in fixing me. There was a lot of negative – self talk because you listen to what people say. Things was coming from different angles and it was attacking me. Whether it was coming from the home, school, the streets or anywhere, they were attacking me. I was a person who didn’t have many friends, yet… I still wanted to be accepted. When you don’t know how to be accepted, you just keep hurting yourself. I even had insecurities to the point of not wanting to live anymore. I would ask GOD, why are you punishing me? I felt like I wasn’t pretty enough or good at anything. Even though I was getting good grades in school, It just wasn’t enough. When you don’t have anyone putting positive into you, you tend to hold onto the negative.
I was born in Jamaica (the island), and I grew up in New York City. I attended Truman high school in the Bronx and I went to college in Conneticut majoring in Nursing. That was my career of choice, well shall I say… I chose this career because that was what my parents wanted me to do. I just did that to please them. It really wasn’t what I wanted to do. I should have majored in what my passion was and that was writing. I always been passionate about writing. I use to write poetry when I was younger. But when your not encouraged in it, the self doubt began and I just stopped. As I got older, I began to work on me and that’s when I started embracing everything I love.
You are married with children. How long have you been married?
I’ve been married for fourteen years to the same man that fathered my beautiful children – Everistus Uke. He is such a beautiful man and I love his deep dimples. I nicknamed him Dimples. My beautiful children varies in ages:
My eldest is 14, his name is Unimke which means GODs gift. 12, his name is Akthanke which means He survived for us. 10, his name is Agiounim which means He hears from GOD. And then my precious jewels… Ushang (my little princess) who is 6 years old.
What would you say to someone, whose going through problems with lack of confidence etc…?
I would encourage them to look to GOD first before looking at themselves. If we try to handle a situation on our own, it’s not going to work. That’s how I lived my life. Everything I went through, I always put GOD first. He can change all things. A lot of times when there is a lot of problems with a relationship, you really have to look at the angle it is coming from. Our lack of confidence affect the way we handle situations. But, if your confident within yourself, and you know that you are doing everything your supposed to do, then just stand right by it and be empowered by it. And if you know that the other person is not willing to change, then guess what… you change and then remove yourself from that situation.
Soul Empowerer is for both men and women. But, I embrace women a little more. We are humans. We all have self doubt, security issues and a lack of confidence. Just because they say the man is the head of the household, that’s a position he could be hiding behind because of his self worth. So, I embrace them all. If there’s anything wrong with you, you would have to fix it because the kids are watching. They are going to learn based on what your doing and not doing. My husband and I are raising four of the finest children. My husband embraces my son’s more because he can teach them things I can’t teach them. I can teach my daughter things my husband can’t teach her. My daughter can’t learn everything from my husband and my boys can’t learn everything from me. My husband can’t teach her “How to make her mark in the world. That has to come from me. I can’t teach my boys “How to become a man.” That has to come from him.
So, my inspiration to do this book came about because, I didn’t want my daughter to grow up feeling the way I did as a child to a woman. Only until I had her, I woke up and wanted to inspire her to have confidence in herself. My inspirations comes from her and my wanting to just keep every men and especially women empowered to have their own voice. My message that I would like to say to people… I’m turning up the volume on your confidence. I am The Soul Empowerer!!!!
