Tina Klonaris Robinson is a mother, entrepreneur, teacher, mentor, and inspirational writer and speaker who believes in the power of stories to transform people’s lives. After the tragic loss of her second child, Meah, in 2006, Tina traveled to Rwanda with Immaculée Ilibagiza and experienced the incredible power of sharing stories in the healing process. She organized a second trip to Rwanda the following year. In prisons she listened to stories told by both victims and killers and learned the power of witnessing to the stories of others. In communities, she taught street boys and women with HIV who were victims of the genocide how to make jewelry. She spent time at the reconciliation villages listening to victims and their perpetrators talk about the healing process and forgiveness. All of this gave Tina a greater understanding of life, what it means to live from spirit. The people of Rwanda, through their stories and way of being, taught Tina how to see life with new eyes, feel it with new heart and experience with new soul. They gave her a part of her life back and helped her to find her own healing. She felt a renewed sense of compassion, love, and forgiveness.
Tina returned to the Bahamas committed to sharing her new found vision, speaking to groups about her personal story of loss and healing, and the stories of deep wounding and forgiveness she listened to Rwanda. Tina began volunteering as a teacher and life coach at the Willa Mae Pratt School for Girls and used online forums to further engage people in the sharing of stories. She is currently working on a memoir, her story of loss and healing as a mother, as well as a children’s book of a magical journey that enables a little boy to see life in new ways, and which she hopes will inspire readers to recognize their greatness within.
Her interests include spending time with her family, spiritual growth and transformation, education, personal development, mentoring to troubled youth, human rights issues, reading writing, traveling and speaking. She is also interested in understanding genocide – why it happens and how we can move forward in reconciliation, forgiveness and hope – She is interested in reconciliation projects around the world, restorative justice, and how we can prevent genocide and other acts of violence through story telling. She is involved in ongoing projects in Rwanda with Prison Fellowship Rwanda and Mustard Seed Project a non for profit foundation in the USA that helps to support orphaned children through education so that they be the great leaders of tomorrow!
Tina is available for speaking engagements, workshops, and life coaching, and continues to use her writing as a bridge connecting people and their stories across oceans. She lives in Nassau, Bahamas, her hometown, with her husband Curtis Robinson, their three sons, Matthew, Thomas and Aiden, and their dog Lucy.