Nominating Carolyn Seaman for a World Pulse Spirit Award

More than 600,000 people have been impacted by Carolyn and I am aware from reading her stories over the years that the majority of these have been young girls who have had the tremendous opportunity to be mentored in one of many ways by this extraordinary sister. Through the years I have heard stories from and about her, seen photos of her putting cameras into the hands of teenagers, and watched these young women filming each other standing strong in their power, facing the camera with messages to the world. Carolyn is also an amazing filmmaker herself. But it is watching these girls come into their power, knowing that they are being mentored by this brilliant dedicated sister, that has reinforced for me what true activism is all about. 

It was an honour last March to be invited to meet some of these girls and to give them some information on the women's movement back in time. It was so deeply hopeful to be able to hear their stories, feel their determination and witness how strongly they believe in themselves thanks to Carolyn and the way she has, in mentoring young women. These young women broke the sound barrier last March speaking out on the radio in Nigeria fearlessly. The government tried to shut the radio station down but the girls kept talking and the radio people keep the line open. This is the fearlessness that Carolyn is able to transfer to the next generation. Next she ensured that the girls also had an introduction to self-defence classes. Now I see these young women speaking out on Facebook. For all of the work that Carolyn has done over a long period of time now, it is an honour to put her name forward as so very worthy of a World Pulse Spirit Award.