Women of Rubies, Author at Women of Rubies

In Career Gems November 24, 2018 By Women of Rubies

JIGAWA LGA TO SPONSOR WEDDING OF 50 WOMEN

The LGA Chairman, Alhaji Garba Abdullahi, disclosed this while inaugurating a 10 member committee for the conduct of the marriages on Friday in Kafin-Hausa.

He said the LGA was directed by the State Government to assist the orphans by sponsoring their wedding, considering the high cost of the ceremony.

Responding, the committee’s chairman, Alhaji Abdulkadir Zakari, thanked Abdullahi for the appointment and pledged to discharge his duties with fear of God.

Members of the committee include Alhaji Muhammad Musa, Alhaji Muhammad Umar and Imamu Hassan, the Chief Imam of Kafin-Hausa among others.

Credit: Pulse News

In self development November 23, 2018 By Women of Rubies

DETERMINED 68-YEAR-OLD KENYAN GRANDMOTHER SITS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL LEAVING CERTIFICATE EXAM WITH HER 13-YEAR-OLD GRANDCHILD

A 68-year old Makueni woman who sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary (KCPE) exam in 2018 has announced she will proceed to join secondary school irrespective of her age.

Veronica Kaleso sat for the final primary education test at Unoa Primary School and scored 143 marks alongside her 13-year-old granddaughter who beat her by scoring 385 marks in the same exam whose results were released on Monday, November 19.

Kaleso could not hide her joy after scoring the marks which she said surpassed her expectations.

Veronica Kaleso who was a KCPE candidate at Unoa primary school scored 143 marks out of the maximum possible 500.

“I am happy with my results because I did not expect to score those marks, remember I’m old and determined to proceed with education’‘, she said.

The mother of 10 and grandmother of 24 who studied from home despite having registered at Unoa Primary School in Kenya, said she had began plans to ensure she joins high school in 2019 to advance her studies.

“I am determined to join secondary school and perform better. If I excel four years, later I will not hesitate to join university. That is my dream and my age won’t hinder me,” she said.

Kaleso said she dropped out of school when she was a standard five pupil at Kyamuthei Primary School in 1969 for lack of fees.

Speaking in English, a language she said she had begun to master, Kaleso said she went back to school in order to manage her workers who used to take advantage of her illiteracy to swindle resources from her farm. “I am a farm manager and I normally lose a lot of money since my employees and customers steal from me. They take advantage of my illiteracy,” said Kaleso.

Credit: legit.ng

In lifestyle November 23, 2018 By Women of Rubies

NIGERIAN COUPLE WELCOME SET OF TWINS AFTER SPENDING MORE THAN 11M ON IVF TREATMENTS

A Nigerian woman, Omotade Alalade, and her husband have welcomed a set of twins after many failed IVFs. In a post on her Instagram page, Omotade shared her testimony. Read below

.
After spending more than N11 million on IVF treatments my husband and I finally complete our family with a set of twins. @tadealalade has TWINSSS ooooo ??. This post would be too long if I start going into details on what I’ve been through trying to conceive. It’s bad enough I more or less had no choice but to conceive through IVF but when you start having multiple miscarriages and having to deal with the fact that my husband and I are AS, it takes my journey to another level.

I found out we were both AS after we got married (I’m still trying to decide if it would have made a difference if I found out before). The amount of tears I cried during my journey can fill an ocean. Majority of the tears came when I lost a set of twins (boy and girl) late in a pregnancy. That was when I truly knew what depression was. Now my lord God finally completes my family with a set of twins. TWINSSSSS ???. Gosh my God is too awesome!!! He can truly move mountains. Absolutely nothing is too big for him. I cry every time I realise how merciful the lord is. I pray every single married woman experiences the kind of joy I’m feeling. Thank you Father ??????????

Credit: LIB

In self development November 23, 2018 By Women of Rubies

MEET THE FIVE FRIENDS WHO WERE BRIDESMAIDS IN EACH OTHER’S WEDDING AND ARE NOW U.S STATE SENATORS

Kerry Donovan, Tammy Story, Faith Winter, Jessie Danielson and Brittany Pettersen, “The Fab Five,” are all longtime friends, serving as bridesmaids in each other’s weddings, and now they’ve all been elected as state senators in Colorado.

The women supported each other during their campaign, Winter shared while speaking to People. She said:

Through the campaign, the five of us were very supportive of each other. We had several text chains where we would check in with one another and see how we were doing.”

If a particularly bad ad or piece of mail came out. We would reassure each other on the text chain, “Have you seen the mail? It’s so awful, how are you doing?”

Danielson shared that the wins were “pretty amazing,” and her and her friends “were all in it together.”

Donovan discussed how it was important to have friends who were going through the same struggles, who could relate with the difficult parts of the journey.

Our families are incredibly supportive, but it’s not their name on the thousands of pieces of mail going out or on the TV. So being able to talk to them, and they are going through the exact same thing, it was so supportive.

Photo Credit: People

Credit: BN

In self development November 22, 2018 By Women of Rubies

SINEM BILEN ONABANJO: SMILE WHEN THAT SMILE CAN BE RETURNED

“Smile when that smile can be returned…” she said, barely containing her tears.

This was earlier in the week when Lydia, a Kenyan acquaintance shared with a number of us the story of her life. Married in 1998, and blessed with two daughters soon after, the first curve ball off left field came in the shape of meningitis. She found herself bedridden, with no brain functions, no sight, no mobility. “I was a cabbage,” she said, recalling over half a year in hospital spent with no improvement and no hope of recovery.

Eight months after her admission, with insurance payments running out, she had to be moved back home. “I knew I was in familiar surroundings, but not much else. I still couldn’t see my husband or my children,” she said of the time. Until one day praying with neighbourhood women who had come to support her, her vision came back all of a sudden. Then she realised, even with some difficulty, she could move. She called her husband to break the good news.

Then for months, she worked on rebuilding a broken life. Slowly she regained her speech, her mobility, her life. Once an eloquent speaker on international platforms, she had to go back to school to learn the basics of the English language.

Just when she was back on her feet, hard at work, in November 2002, she had another health scare where she spent two weeks in hospital. At this point, not certain whether she would regress, she had already started planning for her death. “I even had picked my husband’s next wife for after I’d died,” she jokes, “I told him, a year after my death, he should marry her. I also told him she had better treat my daughters well or I would come and haunt them from beyond the grave.”

Yet life had another card up her sleeve. She was blindsided just two weeks after, death calling at her door in a way she had not expected.

“It was a public holiday that day,” she recalls, “I’d woken up early to see my husband off. He was going to a village for business. This time around he didn’t tell me where he was going. He assured me he would be back in late afternoon and we could go out for dinner in the evening. I had an uneasy feeling, as if I wanted to run after his car and stop him, but I thought I was being foolish and went back to sleep.”

She woke up again at 9am with a bad headache and an even worse feeling in her gut, but it wasn’t until noon she would get a call from the police asking her to come to the mortuary to identify her husband. He was killed in a car crash soon after 9am.

“At 8am I was a wife,” she says, “At 9am I wasn’t.” Death had caught her unaware. It was another decade of building her life, raising her kids singlehandedly while shutting the outside world out, battling in grief and finding solace in long hours in the office, all the while questioning her faith and asking God, “Why me?” Today, she knows the lesson and she shares so generously.

“Smile when your smile can be returned. Give flowers when they can be received. Show someone you care when they are there. And ladies, appreciate your husbands when you have them.”

Isn’t there such power in those words? By the time she was finished telling her story, there was not a dry eye in the room. Not just because we felt her pain, but also because she was like any one of us. Any one of us could have gone to sleep on Friday, or a Saturday or any other given day a wife, and woken up an hour later a widow. A daughter, then not. A sister, then not. A mother… and in a spilt second not. Such is the threadbare line that is life, with death lurking in the nooks and crannies ready to jump on us and break that line, throwing into ricochet all the things we hold true about ourselves and our loved ones.

So, in Lydia’s words, “Smile when that smile can be returned…”

Credit: Sinem Bilen Onabanjo, Guardian Woman

Photo credit: Google

In lifestyle November 22, 2018 By Women of Rubies

MICHELLE OBAMA COVERS THE LATEST ISSUE OF POWER 100 MAGAZINE

Former First Lady of US, Michelle Obama is the cover star of the Dec. 2018/Jan. 2019 Power 100 issue.

She is also a 2018 EBONY Power 100 Entertainment & Arts honoree.

In the interview, the former First Lady spoke about what makes Black women magical and she also spoke about her new memoir, Becoming.

According to EBONY,

In her book, Mrs. Obama discusses the liberating nature of her post-White House experience and how being a Black girl growing up on the South Side of Chicago helped her even when it may have caused some struggle. She shared her opinion on the weight of the Black-woman-as-savior trope with the publication.

“As for why the world sometimes looks to Black women—and I have to say that I wish the world turned to Black women more often than it does—I think it’s because we’ve got a perspective all our own,” the former first lady told EBONY. “If you’re growing up Black and female, you can’t help but really learn what’s going on down on the ground. You’re going to see a lot of the bottoms of people’s shoes coming down on you, so you learn to be nimble and resourceful.”

Mrs. Obama said the treatment of Black women leads them to be more grateful for what they have and be more optimistic about change. Living as an overlooked group compels Black women to be more sympathetic to the struggles of others.

“The trick is we need more people who are willing to listen to Black women, especially young Black women, to lift up our voices rather than shutting us out,” she added.

KATY PERRY BEATS BEYONCE, TAYLOR SWIFT, TO BECOME 2018 WORLD’S HIGHEST PAID WOMAN IN MUSIC

Katy Perry is the 2018 World’s Highest paid Woman in music, according to Forbes, making a whopping $83 million pretax.

Katy plays 80 dates of her Witness:The Tour and grosses over $1 million per night. She also serves as a judge on ABC’s American Idol reboot, reportedly earning north of $20 million.

Ranking second on the list is singer Taylor Swift who raked in $80 million, with the launch of her new album Reputation, which sold two million copies worldwide in its opening week.

According to Forbes, the only reason she didn’t claim the top spot on this list is that most of her Reputation Stadium Tour dates fell just outside this year’s scoring period.

Beyoncé rounds out the top three, pulling in $60 million.

See the top 10 below:

Katy Perry – $83 million
Taylor Swift – $80 million
Beyoncé – $60 million
Pink – $52 million
Lady Gaga – $50 million
Jennifer Lopez – $47 million
Rihanna – $37.5 million
Helene Fischer – $32 million
Celine Dion – $31 million
Britney Spears – $30 million

Credit: Bella Naija

In self development November 21, 2018 By Women of Rubies

OYINKANSOLA ALABI: DEPRESSION, ITS SYMPTOMS, AND CURE

During a Q&A interactive session

with Women Of Rubies, Emotions Doctor, Oyinkansola Alabi, shed more light into depression, its symptoms, and cure.

She said:

*Depression feeds on rumination and a pre-occupation with self. It can also progress from a state of cluelessness, hopelessness, depression, suicidal thoughts and then suicide.

*Social media has amplified insecurity and esteem issues. However, social media is a double edged sword. You decide its cause and effects. It can either empower or disempower you based on your
relationship with it.

*Anger isn’t equal to depression. You can control anger by deploying a tool called the PAUSE THERAPY. Always pause before you speak, while you speak, and after speaking to be sure you just made sense. Practice this pause therapy for at least six seconds daily.

*Quite a number of depressed souls are aware. However, you can slide
into depression without knowing. You can become unhappy, discont,
clueless, or hopeless.

*Stay away from disempowering thoughts. The truth is, we are all
STORYTELLERS and our life responds or reacts in the direction of our
stories, internal communication, internal representations and
conversations within.

*Understand that happiness is intrinsic not extrinsic. If we depend on
external interference as a source of happiness, we may never be happy.

In Career Gems November 21, 2018 By Women of Rubies

MICHELLE OBAMA’S MEMOIR ‘BECOMING’ BECOMES BARNES & NOBLE FASTEST SELLING BOOK OF 2018

Former US first lady, Michelle Obama’s memoir “Becoming” has become the fastest-selling book of 2018 at Barnes & Noble, surpassing the Trump administration tell-all “Fear: Trump in the White House” by veteran journalist Bob Woodward.

In addition, Barnes & Noble also announced that “Becoming” had the best first-week sales of any adult book since 2015’s “Go Set a Watchman,” the highly anticipated second novel from “To Kill A Mockingbird” author Harper Lee.

Publisher Penguin Random House also revealed that “Becoming” sold more than 725,000 copies on its first day of release last week, the highest single-day sales of any book by the publisher this year, according to CNBC.

In Career Gems November 21, 2018 By Women of Rubies

THREE NIGERIAN WOMEN LISTED ON BBC 100 WOMEN LIST FOR 2018

The BBC has released its BBC 100 Women list for 2018, which celebrates 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world.

The list includes leaders, trailblazers and everyday heroes from over 60 countries, ranging from age 15 to 94.

Nigerians on the list include:

Abisoye Ajayi-Akinfolarin, the 33-year old Social impact entrepreneur, who is the founder of GirlsCoding, an NGO that teaches girls how to code, design and build websites that help solve problems in their communities. Abisoye is also one of the 10 finalist for the CNN Hero Award for 2018.

Amina J Mohammed, 57 – Deputy secretary general, United Nations, Nigeria.

Amina is a former minister of environment in Nigeria and has previously been a special adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Bola Tinubu, 51 – Lawyer, Nigeria.

Bola is a corporate lawyer who established the first free children’s helpline in Nigeria – Cece Yara Foundation

Chidera Eggerue, 23, The UK-based blogger – ‘Slumflower’ is a best-selling author and activist behind the social media movement #saggyboobsmatter, driving new conversations about perceptions of women’s bodies.

Other Africans on the list include:

Fatma Samoura, 56 – Fifa secretary general, Senegal.

Fatma is the first woman and the first African to hold the position of secretary general of Fifa.

Nimco Ali, 35 – Writer and activist, Somaliland

Nimco is an award-winning FGM (female genital mutilation) activist.

Noma Dumezweni, 49 – Actor, eSwatini (formerly known as Swaziland).

Noma is the first woman to play the adult version of Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, playing in London’s West End and Broadway, New York.

Shrouk El-Attar, 26 – Electronic design engineer, Egypt. Shrouk is a refugee and full-time engineer, who uses belly dancing to raise awareness and campaign for the rights of the LGBT+ community in Egypt.

Raghda Ezzeldin, 26 – Free-diver, Egypt.

Raghda is a record-breaking free-diver, who descends to extreme depths without breathing apparatus.

Mamitu Gashe, 72 – Senior nurse aide/fistula surgeon, Ethiopia.

Mamitu is now an internationally certified fistula surgeon, after being treated for fistula (an injury which can occur in childbirth) herself.

Thando Hopa, 29 – Model, lawyer, activist, South Africa.

Thando is a diversity and inclusion advocate. Cast in the Pirelli calendar 2018, she is the first person of colour in South Africa to have featured in the publication.

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, 35 – Environmentalist and advocate for indigenous people and women, Chad.

Hindou is an indigenous woman of Chad, advocating for the protection of the environment and for the rights of indigenous peoples on an international scale.

Helena Ndume, 58 – Ophthalmologist, Namibia.

Helena has performed sight-restoring surgeries upon 35,000 Namibians, free of charge – many of her patients now call her “Namibia’s miracle doctor”.

Olivette Otele, 48 – Professor in History at Bath Spa University, Cameroon.

Olivette is a historian and memory scholar who works on European colonial history and post-colonial legacies.

Brigitte Sossou Perenyi, 28 – Documentary producer, Ghana.

Brigitte is an award-winning documentary producer, who told her story of being a Trokosi – a practice that sends girls to serve priests in shrines as payment for the “sins” of their family – and being trafficked from Togo to Ghana.

Juliet Sargeant, 53 – Garden designer, Tanzania.

Juliet is a doctor-turned-garden designer working to make “places that feel as good as they look”.

Ruth Medufia, 27 – Metal worker, Ghana.

Ruth is a female welder who lives in an urban slum community and aspires to be a role model for young women in the construction industry.

See other names on the list below:

Esraa al-Shafei, 32 – Executive director of not for profit Majal.org., Bahrain.

Esraa has founded a diverse number of digital platforms to give a voice to those under-represented in the Middle East and North Africa.

Svetlana Alekseeva, 18 – Model, Russia.

Svetlana survived a fire that burned almost half her body and now works to help people with scars feel positive about their bodies.

Lizt Alfonso, 51 – Director and choreographer, Cuba.

Lizt has created an internationally recognised fusion dance company which has performed in hundreds of cities across the world.

Isabel Allende, 76 – Author, Peru.

Isabel, who was born in Peru to Chilean parents, is the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author and has sold more than 70 million books in 42 languages.

Boushra Yahya Almutawakel, 49 – Artist, photographer and activist, Yemen.

Boushra is the first female Yemeni professional photographer, whose work has been featured in international publications and acquired by the British Museum.

Alina Anisimova, 19 – Student programmer, Kyrgyzstan.

Alina leads the Kyrgyz Girls’ Space School, which aims to send the country’s first satellite into space.

Frances Arnold, 62 – Professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry, US.

Frances is the recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, and her work on enzymes is used in laboratories, making everything from advanced medicines to biofuels and laundry detergents.

Continue reading at https://www.bellanaija.com/2018/11/abisoye-ajayi-akinfolarin-amina-mohammed-bola-tinubu-named-in-bbc-100-women-for-2018-see-full-list/