“Imarah Consultancy” is managed by Cobi Rietveld.
Throughout my professional experience my aim was to contribute to a better world and make dreams come true. In 1982 I started with my first professional training in Nursing. Since then, I continued learning, working, reflecting, and learning. My own learning never stopped, and I still learn each day.
Besides learning myself, I love to coach, mentor, train, guide, and support others to learn, grow and develop. The greatest satisfaction in all my different roles and jobs, is when I see someone grow and develop, overcome obstacles, do the things they want to do, and materialize their dreams.
After nearly decades of experience in health, management, training, coaching in my own country, development work and humanitarian aid with NGOs, I decided to start “Imarah consultancy” in June 2021, with the aim to assist others to learn, grow and develop.
Personally, I feel privileged, to have had the opportunities, to learn, to experience, to make my own choices, and make my own dreams come true. My official learning includes, Nursing, Nurse trainer, Community Health, Masters in Public Health, coaching for individuals, teams and organisations. The real learning though, has happened throughout my life, while I was in the middle of new experiences, sometimes not knowing what to do, sometimes reflecting on what I have learned in theory, and how this could be useful in the new situations. Many times the experience of the situation was a learning by itself, being in contact with people of all different backgrounds, with different cultures, values, beliefs, and experiences. I have been in places in the world where the situations were sometimes complex with challenges in political situations, security issues, different cultures, and sometimes I would ask myself, “What am I doing here?”. With all these experiences, I learned a lot about life and its complexities. In this life with ups and downs and surprises around the corner, I met wonderful people, I have beautiful memories and and I believe I am lucky to have such a rich experience.
With this experience, I aim to support others to learn, and develop through coaching, training, and advice. I have been working in various positions mostly within the health sector as nurse, manager, health advisor, medical coordinator, trainer, country director of humanitarian missions and now as consultant. I have worked as a volunteer and as salaried staff in development work and humanitarian aid in Bangladesh, India, Tanzania, Jordan, South Sudan, Iraq. My experience includes nursing, training, and developing trainings, coaching, and mentoring, program coordination, strategy development, security management, HR management, budget monitoring, advocacy.
My passion lies in coaching, mentoring, and training while aiming to contribute to a better world.