JOY TO WOMEN

Sometime this week, I was invited by an organization to assist in resuscitating their dying Women’s Group and immediately I resolved to appreciate those women who have made my life better and never allow any Woman in my life to go unappreciated or unmentioned.
This is to say women’s day must be celebrated daily and not to be resuscitated just a few days before the annual Women’s day celebration.
If you would ask me, I will say that God has deliberately placed some good women at every point in my life.
My Dearest Women, You made my sun shine and make my tears subside, you make me the voice I wanted to be and you became the mountain I am standing on in order to the loud speaker for those women. These are women of candor, my Amazon, my sisters and my mentors. May you be Happy Everyday that you are a women and not only on March 8. May the World come to the full realization that without the egg, there can be no chicks and the eggs can only be produced and fertilized in a womb.
Dear woman, I wish you well and that that above everything you should live to fulfill your dreams because You are the woman who made us what we are today, you supported us and madeus open my mouth to say, so life can be this sweet?
Personally,the love, joy and concern from my sisters and mentors from the Globe are just too much. I cannot stop thanking God for the day I know every woman here. There are times without numbers when I had to pinch myself to see if I will wake up from slumber but I will discover that I am not in the dreamland but I am standing tall on a mountain made and mould out of women.
The women I appreciate are numerous, but I will start with you.
It may be surprising to you that you are my number one woman. Do not be surprised but I love and appreciate you because you are you. If not , you will not be here, if you are here, it means you feel concerned about the plight of women. If you feel for women, then you are my sister, my mother and my mentor, and I say Woman, May your Days be Glad!
Don’t you see the love, concern and affection we show to one another here, cant you see how you wish me well every time? How I wish you can see my heart to know how much I appreciate every woman. Do you know how Jade Frank squeezes herself into commenting to our scribbled words, my friends from Cambodia, USA, Rwanda, Kenya, Cameroon, UK, I am always proud to tell everyone that cares to hear that I have friends in more than a hundred countries!
To start with, I remember you my dear mother; Comfort for bringing me to this World, you refused to hiss when you delivered me, you told me that you named me Olutosin; telling me to serve God, for He is the only one who will make a way for me since all hope was lost. She knew that that I would have no inheritance. I will never forget her only advice that I should read, and read and read for there is nothing in stock for me except education. I made sure that I read, since looking left and right, I saw nothing, no radio, no iron, no TV, except if I watch the neighbor’s TV through a hole I made in the cardboard that was used to demarcate the Flat. Today, I told my husband how we used to live on pounded cassava and bitter leaf. How I wish my mother can live long to see the goodness of God in my life.
My sister Jensine Larsen, how will I ever forget the day you, told me that I will go places? I decided to buckle my canvas because, I do not wear high heel shoes. Jensine, my Jensine, happy women’s day to you. Do you know that you refused to enjoy American life and forget those women who curse the day they were born. No one will believe me if I say that just yesterday, my younger daughter (6 years old) said that she would like to be an Accountant so that she would be able to stay in an air conditioned office, that is how bad poverty can have impact in the life of a child.
I have heard about the beauty of America, the easy life and the good food, I have read about the tarred road and the uninterrupted power supply, I heard that there are no Kids hawking on the roads in Portland, someone even said that your women are not afraid of their health centres, unlike in Nigeria, do you know that a popular radio journalist died last week because the doctors are on strike and she was about to deliver a set of twins. The twins died and she followed them too. This is reported because she is a journalist, countless women have died this month in Lagos, our government is less concerned, who asked women to become pregnant? I also heard that in your America, the school roofs are not leaking. Also they said that every citizen living with disability have welfare package, unlike in our countries where those with disabilities are expected to live by the road sides. I heard that every woman in America has seen a computer before!
Is it true that all these good things of life in your USA, you still think about women from the developing world, you think about women who walk miles to their stream, who walk miles to harvest their crops, who cover miles to attend health care, women who cover mileage to enroll their children in schools. Now let me write to My Jensine Larsen and her team, it is still surprising that you still have the time to think about those of us who would think and sweat before they can place whatever on the dining table, I mean dining floor. I also heard that some women are in Rwanda, poor women, were you able to meet them, were you able to compare and contrast the difference between your women and our women in the slums in our beautiful Africa. There was a time I visited a slum in South Africa, I controlled myself because I was almost vomiting. We have our slums in Nigeria too. Slums are different from villages.
My dear Jensine, our Amazon, do you know that I find it hard to believe that as you sit in front of your laptop, you are thinking about my Dearest Dalit women residing in Dalit colonies in India? Yet you still have time to feel for those suffering from infanticide, the missing girls in India, you have the time to think about their widows, their orphans, and the pregnant women who are afraid to go for a scan, do you still remember that there are some women who are awaiting death sentences in Burma, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.
Happy Women’s day to my Worldpulse team who still remember those women in Burma, I mean the refugee camps between Thailand and Burma, those farms where women just live to breed children? I once asked one of them why they are always breeding children, she said they had nothing to do, I now realize that it is possible for a woman to live a futureless life. Just to sleep and wake and make babies because there is a selfish government in power!
Still you have time to think of these women.
Jensine you are that woman. My woman, aren’t you happy that God almighty has instilled the love of these women in your heart. We are God’s creature but almighty creator creates women in different shapes, sizes and places them in different countries. If we are allowed to choose our Nationalities during creation, will there be any woman in Nigeria. Don’t you think that every woman will love to originate from the developed world? Yet several good women travelled down to our countries in order to show their kindness and love, there are some who could not visit but send funds to support everyone.
My official mentor through the Voices of our Future program is Ma Natalie Safir, she once told me that there are some people who are sad and would want me to be sad too. Therefore, I should learn to read moods of others before accepting their curses or abuse, I must never allow people’s mood to dictate my mood because I am not responsible for their sadness. Nobody should be able to make me sad. She told me to avoid any work that plants sadness in my life. Because of her training, I left a bad work and decided to start Stop The Abuse of Rights for women and children. Today, I have trained more than two hundred women.
I will not forget you too Ma K-Lee Starland, you told me to fake my professionalism in NGO Management until I become a real professional. Now I am a professional, I took myself into more learning because of the training you offered me, you love me without reservations, I appreciate you Ma.
A good woman in India had a tremendous impact in my life because of the woman I met in Bangalore, she is Ma Mercy Kappen; she said I was the first honest Nigerian she has ever met. Because of this testimony, I made up my mind never to tell a lie again, no matter how inconsequential the lie is. She recommended me for the last scholarship I got, not for me alone but for every Nigerian I recommend for the training. How can I forget such a woman, she is my mother.
I got to Kleinmond in Cape Town and was met by a woman who had fought for me because of the Indian recommendation; she is Mrs. Nyathi Nthombi, the organizer of the Training in South Africa. She showered me with so much love that I shed tears of joy continuously.
Women! Why art thou so loving?
My women, you are always moving ahead of me, wherever I go, because there is always a woman who is stationed to support me every time, you mentor and care for the creatures of God, my women are there to water the flower, weed the farm, fetch from the stream to control overflowing, there is another woman pleading for peace at the dialogue table and another woman saving for the future.
Today, Dear friends, acknowledge the woman in your life, allow the drop of tears if she is asleep in the bosom of the Lord. And for those who are passing through their valleys that the twilight signifies that the morn is near. They shall blossom soon.
I stopped being afraid of that women in your communities because you are there, just ensure that you start something for women this Women’s Day, no matter how little the beginning is, remember that because it is for women, it will Blossom. There are several women who are looking up to you today, do not forget that you are the voice and you are created where you are in order to make a difference.
I wish you joy my mothers and sister who fight day and night to make women happy everyday.