A changemaker that apparently likes to drive change from cases in rural communities @BONCAFO
A key aspect of my work that a few people who know me personally have tried to nudge me to share more about is the lived experience part of it.
There is no alphabet in the abbreviation SGBV that I have not personally experienced.
When I started this work and found myself in rooms with other changemakers and advocates sharing their personal stories, leading with their lived experiences, I never felt the need to follow the same path.
I understand how powerful lived experience can be in driving the work we do, especially in building connections with people. There is something about helping someone understand that the person standing before them has also walked through what they are going through. It can make a difference.
But I have chosen to let my experiences be my anchor and personal motivation without making them the centre of my work or introducing myself primarily from a survivor's perspective. I have shared personal experiences, not just the one that touches "SGBV"
I greatly admire people who have chosen to share their stories openly. My decision not to do the same is not rooted in shame or a fear of oversharing. It is something else entirely, something I might share when the situation changes.
Rural advocacy has always been personal to me. Whether I lived in Lagos, Lafia, Enugu or Port Harcourt, I have always found myself drawn to telling stories from rural communities and finding ways to support the people who live there.
There have been times when I have considered calling it quits. Sometimes, you begin to wonder how you can continue empowering others when you are not empowered or stable enough yourself.
And then there are those periods when you feel like you have nothing left to give.
Like Messi once said, there comes a point when your legs have given out and can no longer carry you.
I have reached that point more than once. I have given my time, my resources and pieces of myself until I felt completely empty. I have sat with the feeling that I genuinely had nothing more to offer.
But then someone comes along, someone who looks at you with the kind of helpless hope of a baby looking up at its mother for breast milk, and somehow, you find yourself gathering one last bit of strength to keep going. You pull yourself together and give one more push.
Sometimes, I am scared of what happens when I can no longer do that. I am scared of reaching a point where I have to come before the same public I have spent years asking to support others and say, this time, I am the one who needs help.
It is a difficult place to be, and I know many people working in social change have found themselves there.
Because as much as I believe in the work, I also want to get to a point where I can keep doing it without always having to find one last bit of strength to give.
God help me and send the help and resources needed to do the work he constantly likes to send my way.
@ositadim_ma@haywhycbfw@Zlatan_Ibile He meant from smoking you done accommodate person for house,person where be say na only smoking Dey keep una two together