And she held my hand

‘Hello Toyin, how are you? It is me Ngozi, there is an opening for a front desk officer at Baobab and I think you might be interested’

It was not far from the very trying period of my life when my mother died from Myasthenia Gravis and when I didn’t feel the support of my family and my extended family. I had being tagged a rebel and a rude girl because I spoke up to my step brother who sent me to school but who had got a lot of things wrong. Through him, I know how to be disappointed and angry because of his incessant complaint, the insult directed at my mother through me and his non-stop talk about how many other people he was helping.

This was a brother that I saw as a father and when this disappointment set in and I could not take it any more, I spoke up and the family saw it as an insult especially from the very younger girl in the family! With all these headache faced, my mother died. I did not feel the sympathy of any family around me but that of my friends which I was grateful for. In their roles, they held my hand, they made me feel comforted and they listened as I let out my anger! It was a joy to behold when a few Months later, I discovered Baobab for Women’s Human Rights an organisation working to protect and defend women’s rights.

Ngozi had met me at one of their trainings where I had mentioned that I needed a job. Ngozi called me as soon as they had an opening. Yes, she held my hand by making this opportunity available. I joined this family and thorough my work at Baobab, I discovered what it meant to have a confidant, what it meant to have someone to lean on, someone and many others in the same organisation who encouraged and brought the best out in you. Who never doubted the importance of empowerment, who never gave up on women making their own mark in the world.

Meeting Ngozi, working at Baobab had propelled me forward. It has enabled me to see that all discriminations against women that I disagreed with within are a good course. This has made me grown and this has given me more energy that I can contribute to the world.