KNOWLEDGE...THE KEY TO FREEDOM!

As I write this story, I dash in and out turning my generating set off and on because of the epileptic power supply, at the back of my mind, this story must go. I come from a country that calls herself the giant of Africa, Nigeria turns 51 on October 1, 2011 and I still see her crawling like before she started to walk. It is a litany of woes from lack of security, lack of power supply, unemployment and an education and health sector that its citizens have lost faith in, to mention a few.

My passion has always been Education and Financial freedom, vis-à-vis empowerment for the women folk in my community and I have battled with the issues of apathy, negligence, illiteracy and the culture of silence in getting the message across. The patrichal nature of Nigeria has made it difficult for women to make efforts at getting informed about issues that affect them.

I had the opportunity of attending a seminar where the issue of prostate cancer was discussed and it made a lot of sense to me and spurred me to dig for information because I have 4 brothers, 1 over 40 and the other 3 in their early 30s, I didn’t know I was being prepared for what fate was going to thrust on me. Sometime last year my father was faced with this challenge and had to undergo a major operation, it was a trying time for me and my family and we had heard stories of what people went through and how most people do not survive the operation but we just kept faith. The operation was successful and I talked with him about what I had learnt via the internet as regards prostate cancer. When I got back from that trip I tried sharing my experience but I got mixed reactions because people didn’t understand what it was about and the women felt it was not in their place to tell their men to go have their prostate checked and I wondered what ignorance was capable of doing to a people.

I have resolved to continue educating the masses through constant programmes on radio and television geared towards providing information and helping to proffer solutions. I’m also going into intensive one to one discussion and health seminars to tackle this issue by sharing my father’s experience.

Pulsewire is helping to carry my message and also give me the opportunity to connect with the stories of other women around the world! I have also taken advantage of my blog and my facebook page to share information and bring people together to talk issues. In the few weeks I have been on Pulsewire, a lot has happened, my perspective has changed, my drive has been re-ignited and I’m better equipped with information to do my job well so I think this is the place for me to give and take information and most of all Connect!