You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

Today's talk is part of our new 2025 TED Fellows films adapted for podcasts just for our TED Talks Daily listeners.

We'll be releasing these special episodes showcasing our amazing fellows on certain Fridays

throughout the rest of 2025 and into the new year, so stay tuned.

The TED Fellows program supports a network of global innovators, and we're so excited to share

their work. Today, we'd like you to meet airline pilot and flight instructor, Refielwe-Ladwaba.

What does it take to fly a plane?

For Refielway, a commercial airplane and helicopter pilot based in South Africa,

it took Perseverance Drive and an instructor who took the time to get to know the best way for her to learn.

Today, she's the founder of Girls Fly Africa, an organization that is empowering the next

generation of pilots, particularly young women, with the engineering skills, professional networks,

and hands-on experience they need to take flight.

She shares what it took to get her in the air and why the knowledge of flight is so important

for young people, regardless of whether they become pilots.

After we hear from Rufielway, stick around for her conversation with Ted Fellows program

director Lily James Olds.

Sometimes we tend to make people part of the problem only,

but we don't make people part of the success.

We're quick to say, oh, these were my challenges,

but we're not quick to say, but this person removed this barrier,

and this person removed this one.

...