Dream Chaser

Entrepreneur Annabel Biggar-David, founder of essential oil company Organico, has overcome overwhelming obstacles to fulfil her extraordinary potential. 

- Shireen Fisher

‘At Organico, we believe that everyone deserves a life of happiness and wellness, so we offer safe, natural products that deliver results,’ Annabel (42) says. Her business specialises in a range of diffusers and essential oils. It’s unsurprising that Organico’s ethos centres on wellbeing: the abusive environment Annabel grew up in was perhaps the very thing that drove her to establish a company with such a holistic approach.

The Durban-born entrepreneur moved to Mitchells Plain on the Cape Flats when she was four, and returned to Durban a few years later to live with her grandmother.

‘I went back to the Cape Flats when I was 11,’ she says. ‘That’s when everything changed.’

Like most of us, Annabel’s childhood informed who she would become as an adult – but in her case, it was by clearly showing her what she didn’t want to become.

‘Things got rough: my father started drinking and doing drugs again, and was abusive and incredibly violent. Home was no longer a safe haven.’ Worse yet, says Annabel, her father was a child molester. ‘It was my testimony that put him in jail.

I remember the call from prison: he said that as soon as he got out of jail he would kill me.’

Having to confront her parents at age 13 to reveal her father’s abuse was the most terrifying thing she’s ever had to do, she says.

‘I wish my mother’s response had been different – “no one will believe you and no one will ever feel sorry for you”, were her words. But that experience allowed me to see the world as it shouldn’t be.’