Emma Outteridge
ileftmyheartinuganda.com
Before We Began
Emma had an incredible story — and a storybook life. She grew up on a sailboat in New Zealand, was employed by one of the main sponsors of the America’s Cup sailing race, traveled the world to glamorous ports of all, and was soon to marry a skipper who would soon also win Olympic gold. The story she wanted to tell was about how she had fallen in love with a school community in Uganda and built a bridge between the world of elite sailing and a landlocked school in Africa. She had a finished manuscript, but the structure of her book did not capture the drama of the story, and she had not yet found her powerful voice.
We stripped the story down to the foundation and built it back again.
While We Were Working
From Emma: “I still have such a vivid image of rowing ashore from our houseboat in Buenos Aires with my laptop in a rubbish bag down my wet weather jacket in the pouring rain to go and sit in our rental car and have my call with you when I first finished the manuscript at the end of 2015. How far we have come since then!”
What’s The Big Idea?
Privileged people who want to help those who have had less opportunity can’t just swoop in for a short stint of volunteer tourism; in order to make a true impact, they need to listen deeply and commit wholly.
The Outcome
An inspiring, true story of adventure and altruism.
Emma Outteridge was born into the America's Cup world and spent her twenties running Louis Vuitton's international sailing hospitality programme. While rubbing shoulders with celebrity athletes and billionaire sponsors had its charms, over time Emma craved something more.
In 2009, aged 25, she moved to KAASO, a primary school for orphans in Uganda, naively intent - like so many eager volunteers before her - on giving back and 'saving the world'. However, this is not a story of scraping the surface on a token voluntourism jaunt, but of a lifelong love affair. While volunteering at KAASO, Emma was asked by a young student, Henry, whether she might sponsor the rest of his education. Initially hesitant to make such a commitment, she would go on not only to sponsor Henry, but also to found the Kiwi Sponsorships programme, funding the secondary education of more than 70 children in Uganda.
Spanning a decade, Between Two Worlds chronicles Emma's journey from wide-eyed volunteer to someone whose life is deeply rooted within her Ugandan village community. She finds a way to marry her two worlds, building a bridge between the international sailing community and a rural East African village.
Poignant and compelling, Between Two Worlds is a story of transformation and hope against all odds that will stay with you long after the final page.
A portion of the proceeds from this book will go to KAASO.
In Her Own Words
“I had been working on a memoir - my story of moving between the luxury world of international sailing events working for Louis Vuitton and volunteering in a Ugandan primary school for HIV/AIDS orphans - for five years when I had the incredibly good fortune of meeting Jennie Nash. I had enrolled in her ‘Writing the Memoir’ course at UCLA and from the minute I entered the class, I knew that Jennie was someone I needed to have in my life. She took me aside and suggested we work together on my story which she believed to have great potential. I was excited beyond belief and, in early 2016, we got underway completely rewriting my memoir from scratch. It was a daunting prospect to start over on what I had believed was a ‘completed’ manuscript, but the result was a far greater, more polished book with the ’so what?’ factor that ended up landing me not one, but two offers of publication.
While working with Jennie, I was travelling the road with my professional sailor husband, writing from hotel rooms and AirBnBs across the globe, from Sydney to San Francisco, from Buenos Aires to Bermuda. It was one of the most thrilling, exhausting, exciting, and inspiring times of my life. Jennie was with me every step of the way, calling inyo my makeshift office, negotiating time zones and deadlines around my crazy schedule. I looked forward to every email, every conversation with Jennie as they always left me so inspired, so determined and so excited to keep writing, keep honing, keep cranking!
Jennie has a gift, a true gift — she sees a spark in someone, a glint of gold in their story and she works tirelessly to help bring that through so that you end up with a glittering, polished piece of work that you can’t quite believe you were able to create. It’s thanks to Jennie that I am now proud to share my story with the world - I’m forever grateful that I found her and can’t imagine ever writing a book without her!”
