WHAT IS YOUR EXCUSE??????

LOIS THE GREAT!!!!!!!!

One of the greatest women I know in the world, Unlimited and ever soaring. She is actually the first person I have personally met that I blog about, she is all about inspiration and motivation, always smiling and has a warm welcoming aura at all times. I thought you should know her too.

BACKGROUND

At the age of two (2), Lois Auta was affected by Poliomyelitis, an ailment that affected her legs, thus making her to use wheel chairs, but in her words, she said and I quote “I never allow it to weigh me down. It only affected my legs not my brain, therefore I’m equal to the task.  In disability, I see abilities, opportunities, hope and a brighter future. Some see their disabilities as weakness, I see mine as strength, others blame God for their disabilities, but I remain grateful for mine. What others see as deformity, I see as variety”. And these are not mere words, she has worked tirelessly to prove that she is able.

Lois comes from a humble background, and saw herself through growth and life, having lived as a woman with disability and grown through life as an orphan. This woman would have even been congratulated if she gave up at any point. But No!!! She didn’t.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Lois Auta, that’s her name. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Cedar Seed Foundation (CSF), and has over 5 years of experience in the development sector. CSF is a non-profit formed with the objective of mainstreaming the issues and concerns of persons with disabilities particularly women, girls and children with disabilities in Nigeria into the national development agenda based on the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (UNCRPD). She is also a Mandela Washington fellow and a Disability Rights Advocate. Ms. Auta is a sports athlete and sits as the president of the FCT Disabled Sports Club, Abuja. She is a Board member – Federation of Civil Servants Staff with Disabilities Multipurpose Cooperative Society. She is also the Founder and President of Women on Wheels Multipurpose Cooperative Society. Lois is a board member, Potters Gallery Initiative.

She currently holds the position of Vice President of the Mandela Washington Fellows Alumni Association, Nigerian Chapter and is a support staff with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). She is a Mentor with Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program and a YALI Recruitment Assessor for West Africa Regional Leadership Centre. Despite all these achievements that I have listed and even the ones that I have not talked about, qualities that can be used to qualify this young lady are: brave, courageous, a role model, independent, mentor, intelligent, hardworking, and full of innovative ideas.

What is your excuse??? The only person holding you back is YOU!!!!

How far are you willing to go for your dream

THE MOST CONFIDENT WOMAN ON EARTH!!! The Hijabi Woman on a mission to be an Anchor on the American Television.

Her name is Noor Tagouri, and she is a Hijabi (A hijabi is someone who covers their heads and some part of their neck, on grounds of religion, this act is found commonly among Muslim women).

Noor Tagouri

As a kid, Noor had identity crisis, she did not like the fact that her mum had to put on a Hijab every time she came around her(Noor), and her friends. she tried as much as she could not to ever talk about her religious background and culture. So obviously, for her a hijab at that age was a NO NO!!!

Which one of them is Noor? Can you guess

Noor’s role model was Oprah Winfrey, she especially liked the way Oprah asked questions and made people feel comfortable enough to share their most vulnerable experiences in her program. At a young age, she naturally wanted to take after her mentor’s footsteps, and with a very supportive father, who would take her on a visit to her favourite reporters, she was able to scale high.

Noor on Oprah Winfrey Network (Her role model)

To deal with her identity crisis, when they moved to Washington, she discovered that she was different and learnt to be very proud of it. That was when she decided to go under the veils and become a full hijabi.

Did you notice the Hijab in this picture?

After a research Noor made, she discovered that no Hijabi had ever been a presenter on the American Television. This singular discovery ignited a fire in her to want to be the first female Hijabi to be an anchor on the American Television.

On one occasion Noor shared a picture of herself in The ABC news desk, with the comments “Here is what my dream looks like”. Before the next day, the picture had gone viral, motivating lots of people to also put up pictures of what their dreams looked like. At that point she realized the power of social media. Capitalizing on this viral approach, Noor and her family came up with a hashtag campaign #LetNoorShine. This would encourage people to share and follow their dreams, no matter how impossible it seemed.

A Picture of what Noor's dream looks like

Despite other hijabi women warning Noor that “it’ll always be the scarf or the job,” Tagouri is confident that she won’t have to hide her beliefs to find employment. Besides, she says, “My identity is way more important to me than a job.” She is very confident that her dream will come true some day.

Currently, Noor is both a reporter and a motivational speaker. You can guess the area her motivation is tilting towards. She has talked on TEDx with the caption “Being Rebellious” and also travels widely to places like Paris to talk about the Hijab and the rights of women. Now she boasts of having more than 96,000 likes on Facebook, nearly 62,000 followers on Instagram and 17,000 on Twitter. Join the campaign today, to #LetNoorShine. What stands in the way of your dream, are you considering the option of giving up? Rise up, lets #Helpyoushine.

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THE FIRE BRAND NIGERIAN YOUNG GIRL AT 13

Zuriel Oduwole: The young Girl on a Journey to Promote Africa

What were you doing at the age of 9? okay 10. What about 11… I can’t remember what I was doing, but I can tell the tale of a girl who started her journey to fame and social development at the age of 9. With a CV to die for and the profile so many really hardworking people could not achieve their whole life.

Her name is Zuriel Elise Oduwole, a thirteen year old girl who identified her calling at the young age of 9. At the age of 11, Zuriel had interviewed 14 Presidents, many prime ministers and lots of prominent people in the likes of Aliko Dangote, and the Williams Sisters (Serena and Venus). Zuriel feels that interviewing Heads of states will give her the direct access to affect policies concerning girls and their education. Her point of satisfaction in these interviews is when the heads of state promise to effect the required changes that have been pointed out in their countries.

Zuriel the Wonder Girl

At the age of 10, Zuriel broke a world record of being the youngest person to be interviewed by Forbes, and listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She has also made the famous women magazine ELLE’s Global 33 List of women who changed the world.She has been interviewed on so many popular platforms.

Beyond all that have been listed above, Zuriel at her age has made thought provoking Documentaries about Africa, she is passionate about promoting Africa in a positive light, a dream that developed when she was 9, and entered for a competition that required her to interview the then Ghanaian President, President Jerry John Rawlings. Some of her documentaries include:

1.) The Ghana revolution

2.) Educating and Healing Africa out of Poverty

3.) Technology in Educational Development

4.) A Promising Africa

For her, being born Abroad is not a barrier to her Love for Africa, she regards herself as a Pan-African Child, being of the Nigerian and Mauritian heritage. Zuriel runs a project called the Dream up, Stand up, Speak up project, through which she moves around the globe talking to young people specifically girls about the opportunity that awaits them if they are educated.

Zuriel dressed in a popular African Attire

Zuriel’s lifelong dream is to become the President of the United states, and she feels she stands a great chance to achieve it. In comparing herself to the present President of the United States, president Barack Obama, she says: he was raised by a single parent and I have got two. At 11, he had never met a single President, but I have interviewed 14, so I think I stand a greater chance. She says that if she is the President of the United states, it will be easier for her to effect change in many African countries that she would not have reached if she is the president of just one African country.

With President oyce Banda of Malawi

Zuriel with President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria

She discloses that despite the fact that she knows that she’s extraordinary, it doesn’t prevent her from being a regular kid, playing with her siblings and the neighbors, going to the mall with her mum. She is indeed a wonder girl and an inspiration to so many.

Zuriel with Her sisters

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A SUPER WOMAN!!!!

OLA OREKUNRIN: FOUNDER OF THE FIRST AIR AMBULANCE IN THE WHOLE OF WEST AFRICA

Have you ever felt a sharp pain due to a particular circumstance that hurt you so badly? What did you do afterwards? Meet the 21 year old Nigerian lady who turned her bitterness into a call to save mankind.

Olamide Orekunrin, a 21 year old young Lady who was born in London and raised in a foster home. At 21 years, she had graduated from Hull York Medical school as a qualified Trauma doctor. She was then awarded the MEXT Japanese Government Scholarship and moved to Japan to conduct research in the field of regenerative medicine. Ola is also a helicopter pilot trainee.

When Ola was 21, her 12 years old sister visited Nigeria with some relatives and needed urgent health care, being a sickle cell anaemia sufferer. The nearest hospitals could not give her the help that she needed at that point, so an air ambulance was needed to transport her to a more suitable healthcare facility. In Ola’s words,  "The nearest one at the time was in South Africa. "They had a 12-hour activation time so by the time they were ready to activate, my sister was dead.

Motivated by the tragic death of her sister, the young doctor decided to leave behind a high-flying job in the UK to take to the Nigerian skies and address the vital issue of urgent healthcare in Africa's most populous country. A pioneering entrepreneur with an eye for opportunity, Orekunrin set up Flying Doctors Nigeria, the first air ambulance service in West Africa.

Looking ahead, Orekunrin says her goal is to continue improving access to treatment while focusing on the pre-hospital and in-hospital management of injuries. She says that whilst much attention and funding is directed toward infectious diseases, Africa is also facing a big problem treating physical injuries and wounds.

Currently in its fifth year, the Lagos-based company has so far airlifted about 1000 patients, using a fleet of planes and helicopters to rapidly move injured workers and critically ill people from remote areas to hospitals.

What conditions around hurts you the most? Stop lamenting and start acting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE LADY WHO IDENTIFIED HER QUESTION AT 9

Meet the World Youngest Self made Female Billionaire

ELIZABETH HOLMES with a net worth of $4.6 billion

Ever heard of Theranos????? Well, I never heard until I read, and what’s fascinating is that its founded by a young female Stanford drop out, yeah! female drop out (what is it with all these drop outs, they seem to do better #justthinkingoutloud ). Theranos is an invention that enables the collection of blood samples without the use of big syringes. With Theranos, a drop is all you need.


Her name is Elizabeth Holmes. At the age of 9, Holmes wrote a letter to her father: "What I really want out of life is to discover something new, something that mankind didn't know was possible to do.", and in 2003, at the age of 19, she got into Stanford University to study Chemical Engineering. In her freshman year, she was named one of the President’s Scholars, and was given a stipend of $3000 to pursue a research project and that was the beginning of her breakthrough.

Within a year she had filed a patent application for "Medical device for analyte monitoring and drug delivery," a wearable device that monitored patients' blood and administrated medicine. As a sophomore, Holmes went to one of her professors, Channing Robertson, and told him: "Let's start a company." With his blessing, she founded Real-Time Cures, later changing the company's name to Theranos (a word coined from therapy and diagnosis). She dropped out of Stanford a semester later, working on Theranos in the basement of a college house full time. Professor Robertson served as a director of the company.

Holmes, holding up the her invention. Theranos

Today, Theranos is a $9 billion biotech company that has a new approach to blood testing with the goal is to make clinical testing cheaper and faster.

Holmes doesn't own a TV and states she works every day from the time she wakes up until she goes to sleep. She says that "What matters is how well we do in trying to make people's lives better. That's why I'm doing this. That's why I work the way that I work. And that's why I love what I'm doing so much." 

What matters the most is that we discover why we were sent here. Everyone is an answer to a particular question. How well are you working to get your own question answered?

The great Elizabeth Holmes

SELF CONFIDENCE

This is a pill that every aspiring leader must take. In fact, as a change agent you need an even extra dosage. Here's why, in every society, change is always not easy to be accepted by everyone, and one cannot deny the place of innovation in today's leadership. If you put everything together, it means you will always come up with new things, and people will always want to make you feel wrong, that's why you need the extra dosage of confidence, to stand for what you believe in and make others come on board

Self confidence is not particularly in born, you need to continously remind yourself of who you are. It takes a lot of conscious effort to be self confident. 

So, Dear you!!! You think you can never be confident again, your whole world is crashing before you, you never seem to get anything right. In fact, right now, you are just a number. Rise up and surround yourself with positive energy. Ask yourself, "What's the worst that can happen?" . The moment you answer that question, come up with a back up plan, and let life go on. You can't use your past to judge your future, they are two different instances. Your future starts now, so get into that bus and be the boss. Move your life where you want it to be, and the next time you fail, be glad that you tried, rise up and try again, and some day, you will be proud of who you have become. PEACE!!!!

Lets Take Chances!!!

So I come today with a different message, not the one we used to know, the one that caresses our laziness and nurses our unwillingness to work. Everyday different campaigns come up with claims of fighting for the right of women. I do not have a problem with that. But how do we women help ourselves.

I go out there everyday and see women think less of themselves, relenting at every slight obstacle, yet we tell the men that we are at par with them, not until westart taking responsibility for our action, strive for excellence, think out logical solutions to problems, work hard towards achieving a course, get empowered, and help to empower others, will we be able to gain the audience on the table of parity.

I am a feminist with a difference, not one to caress your lazy bones, and give you slots even when you are unqualified, but one to feed you with truth and challenge you to do more. We shouldn't be taught to be given chances, rather, we should learn to take chances. I stand for peace.

MY MESSAGE TO THE WORLD!!!

Can you just Listen!!!!

My name is Amarachi Musa Obafemi. I am a beauty to the world, I came for a mission of Love to the world, give me a chance. Listen to what I have to say. Treat me more as human and not as a slave. I have more value than to be in the kitchen, I can be creative beyond cooking, I have an initiative of fire, but just let me put it to use. Send me to school and let me decide a future for myself. Treat me like the child I am and not the bride am not ready to be. Allow me talk in family meetings, I also have contributions.

Daddy, do you remember when I was born? How you told family members about my arrival, with the least excitement in the world. How you first looked at me like I forced myself into your family. Just in case you don't remember, I heard you pray to God about the family finances, then he sent me to liberate you. Could you give me a chance at what I was sent here for? You see me as rebellious because I have refused to toll the path of convention. I am a sweet soul asking to be heard. I know my mission to earth and I will achieve it by every available good means.

Hear me out because I have got something to say!!!