Caroline struggled with alcohol addiction for 18 years of her life. She lost two babies to addiction, suffering miscarriages both times.
She describes her miscarriage as, ‘a guilt I can’t even put to words,’ but also shares her journey to getting help.
Watch her speak to the BBC below:
Pearls Africa Foundation’s Abisoye Ajayi-Akinfolarin has been named one of CNN’s 10 Heroes of 2018!
Ajayi-Akinfolarin is one of 10 people around the entire world who will receive $10,000 in support of their heroic endeavors. One of the 10 will be chosen as the “CNN Hero of the Year,” and will receive the sum of $100,000.
Speaking about her cause, CNN said:
Abisoye Ajayi-Akinfolarin left her career to teach computer programming to girls in Lagos, Nigeria where Facebook and Google opened offices earlier this year. A 2013 survey found that less than 8% of Nigerian women are employed in professional, managerial or technology jobs. Ajayi-Akinfolarin hopes to change that statistic.
The “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute” will air live on Sunday, December 9, where Ajayi-Akinfolarin, along with the other 9 heroes, will be celebrated.
You can vote for her to become the “CNN Hero of the Year” here.
Credit: Bella Naija
However, according to him, only about 500,000 pints have been raised.
Alonge disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lagos, during a health and blood drive at YABATECH.
The theme of the event was: “True Humanity to Peace”.
The event included blood donations and a free breast screening for female staff and students.
Alonge said that the Nigerian health sector records a lot of emergencies whereby patients require blood daily and sometimes, they have to spend so much in search of blood.
“The statistics show that in the Nigerian health sector, we need two million pints of blood but we’re able to raise only 500,000 pints.
“This mainly comes from family donors when their loved ones need blood.
“But we see many accidents and other situations where people need blood daily and sometimes find it difficult getting it,’ he said.
The commandant said that the vision of NRCS, Lagos State, is to ensure that blood is available in their bank.
“In January, our detachment raised 120 pints and this time we were able to raise 90 pints, making it a total of 210 pints,” he said.
Alonge said the reason for the decrease was because only full-time students were in school presently, compared to January when the part-time students were there.
He urged people to participate more in humanitarian activities like blood donations to help save lives.
Commending YABATECH detachment, Mr Lawson Sekegor, Chairman of the Mainland Division of the society, said the amount of blood raised at the event would help the state’s branch surpass it’s target.
“Normally, we have expectations from the state body, the number of pints for this year is 500.
“Based on the amount raised here and what we already have, we can beat the target because we need less than 10 pints more to reach it,” he said.
Jonathan Adegboye, 18, a student of the University of Lagos, who donated blood said the exercise made him happy knowing he was helping to save lives.
He added that it also helped him overcome the fear he had of donating blood.
“Overcoming the fear was not a day’s job; last month, I tried donating blood but I gave only two millilitres before I backed out,” he said.
Another donor, Deborah Adeola, a 22- year- old student said that donating blood gave her the opportunity to check her blood pressure, weight and blood level.
Also, Mr Olakunle Lasisi, the Secretary of NRCS, Lagos Branch, urged Nigerians to imbibe the act of voluntary blood donations to help ensure there is enough blood in the blood banks.
He noted that donating blood not only benefits the recipients but also the donors.
According to him, he had an experience a few years ago where he was usually drowsy and sometimes felt dizzy.
He decided to go for a general blood test and was advised to go and donate blood.
“Blood donation refreshes donors.
“Not donating blood is not beneficial to you because you will end up having more than required, which has its disadvantages,” he said.
NAN reports that donating blood may help the donor reduce risks of cardiovascular diseases and other health conditions.
It also gives the donor the opportunity to get a free blood analysis which may include testing for HIV and hepatitis.
According to FEDHEALTH, a South African health blog, blood donors are 33 per cent likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease and 88 per cent less likely to suffer a heart attack.
“The lowered health risks have to do with iron depletion. Iron has a significant impact on the body.
“High blood iron can cause a variety of symptoms such as irregular heartbeat, muscle weakness, hardening of arteries, accelerated cholesterol oxidation, decreased libido and enlarged liver.
“When donating blood, you are removing 225 to 250 milligrams of iron from your body, reducing your risk of health complications,’ it said.
Credit: NAN, Pulse News
It happens often: we appear to be listening but in fact we are so distracted by other thoughts, other people, and other things we have to do, that we’re not really actively listening. Or we’re thinking about what we’re going to say next and how we can say it so that we sound fabulously articulate and intelligent. We don’t entirely hear what the person in front of us is saying. We’re not getting the whole message. In our careers, it’s critical that we are heard. But it’s just as critical that we hear, that we truly hear. Our ability to really listen to others is as vital to our overall presence.
When we actively listen, we’re in a better position to get the whole story. We hear what is being said, how it’s being said and often more importantly, what isn’t being said. We start to see the whole picture, we grow in understanding and we learn. In the wise words of talk show legend Larry King, ‘I never learnt anything while I was talking.’
The more we listen, the more people tend to share, because ultimately people have a need to be heard. To remain unheard is almost like being invisible. When you give people the respect of listening to what they have to say and you value their right to express themselves, you make them feel more valuable. Don’t ever underestimate the power of giving someone the opportunity to be listened to.
Here are 8 tips to fine-tune your listening skills:
Here’s to the power of listening,
Warm wishes,
Lori
LORI MILNER is the engaging facilitator, thought leader and mentor known for her insightful approach to being a modern corporate woman. Her brainchild, the successful initiative Beyond the Dress, is the embodiment of her passion to empower women.
Credit: Lori Milner, lionessesofafrica.com
On December 3rd, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will moderate an on-stage conversation with Michelle Obama about Obama’s new memoir, “Becoming”.
The conversation will cover Obama’s early life and career, her reinvention of the role of First Lady, and her ongoing activities since leaving the White House.
According to the publisher’s website:
Reflecting on her memoir, Michelle Obama will invite audiences into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she will recount her triumphs and her disappointments – both public and private – and in candidly recounting moments from her own extraordinary journey, Obama will also share life lessons learned, and inspire people to become the very best version of themselves.
The event will take place at the Royal Festival Hall of the Southbank Centre in London.
About 4 years ago, I sat down and asked myself why I was so unlucky in love and ending up with all the Mr wrongs instead of ending up with my Mr. Right? I thought hard for days and that was when I realized there was only one constant in all my years of terrible dating choices. ME.
I woke up one day and said, “If I didn’t work on ‘ME,’ I would never end up with a good man and be a ‘WE’.
For all those years that I had been ‘just being myself’, it always led me down a path to nowhere. Then one day I decided to become the very best ME by learning everything I could about myself and the love department. And everything changed, including the sentence that not only changed my life, but can change yours too.
“Don’t Be Yourself, Be Your BEST Self”
So, if you want to learn about how you can be your best self, then keep reading.
Do you consider yourself the exact same person today that you were a year ago? 5 years ago? 10 years ago?
If you are being truthful, there’s no doubt that you understand that as a human being you are constantly changing. Think about what you were like at your happiest time of your life. Maybe you were in love or were on a great vacation. Think about the way you felt inside.
The way you looked at the world.
Now, do the same thing and think about what you were like during one of the lowest point in your life. Maybe you were just dumped by someone or just got fired from your job. Think about the way you felt inside. The way you looked at the world. The fact is that our life experiences are constantly changing us and on any given day we are gathering up more fuel to fill fire that is our “self.”
The problem with the concept of being yourself is that at any given time our sense of self is different. It is ever changing, which means when someone offers up the advice to just be yourself is that it fails to take into account where you are in your life at any given moment. Let me ask you these two questions: Are you the best you that you can be?” and “Are there areas in your life you can improve on today that will help you tomorrow?” If the answers to both of these questions is “NO” then I ask you, “Should you just go on being yourself or try to make improvements?”
The key to happiness and success in life isn’t about staying in one place (aka BEING); it’s about striving for personal growth and improvement. It’s about continually putting yourself in a position to learn and stretch into positive change. When you understand that, there is little you can’t accomplish in life.
Did you know that being yourself can actually keep you from meeting the love of your life? Imagine for a moment there is a very shy woman named Temi. She is someone who doesn’t like to engage other people very much either in social situations or work settings. Now she is at a party surrounded by attractive, single men. Any one of those men could be the man of her dreams.Since Temi is a shy person, she is being herself and standing in the corner. Nobody comes and talks to her and she leaves the party meeting not one single man.
So because she is being herself and standing in a corner do you think Temi is putting herself in a good position to find that special someone? Of course not.
When you or anyone else enter a situation like a cool party you want to be the very best person “you” can be. You want to show the people in that room the very best of you. Show them that you are a special, confident, authentic person. And for Temi, and people like her, this will take effort.
Let’s take another example where there’s a guy named Damola. Damola is unhappy. The reasons are simple, he’s pushing 40, extremely unhealthy, lives at home with Mom, and spends 10-hours a day watching tv. He wants to find a woman and even does some online dating, but has not had much luck. You need to know that change does not happen over night, but day-by-day those little changes add up!
What do you think Damola’s prospects are at finding true love? Not so good. But if one day he took steps to become the very best Damola he could be, what do you think could happen for him?
If I were Damola’s friend, I would help him to work to improve at least one aspect of his life. It sounds cliché, but it is about being the best person he can be one day at a time.
Maybe he starts working out to get healthy and in shape. Then he makes the goal to go on one date a month. Finally, he makes the big step to look for his own apartment. It may take time, but once he makes the decision to be the best person he can be, happiness and change are soon to follow.
If you are ready to make the positive changes in your life and begin the work it takes to become the very best “you,” that you can be, then I ask you what is one thing you’re willing to do today that get’s you one step closer.
You are a special person who deserves the very best out of love and life and in order to make the changes to achieve that it starts with one decision, a decision to break away from the conventional thoughts about who you are and start thinking about who you want to be. Once you do that there will be nothing you won’t be able to achieve.
To our happiness. Cheers.
Source: Guardian
Her Network has unveiled the official nominees for the 2018 Her Network Woman of the Year (HNWOTY) Awards, which returns for a second edition on December 2, 2018.
Every year, HNWOTY celebrates outstanding women of impact changing the narrative through exceptional work in their fields. The Founder, Nkem Onwudiwe, speaking on the idea behind the tag for this year- Her Year of Greatness- stated: “The path of greatness has already been paved for us; we just have to be courageous enough to walk in it so we chose to use this tag as a call to action for women to step into their greatness, unapologetically”. An important factor to consider this year is the growing number of superlative women in various sectors making impact in their organizations and communities and doing so with bold expositions.
Her Network Woman of the Year Awards Ceremony and Networking Night is scheduled to hold on December 2 at Landmark Towers in Lagos. The nominees, selected from a large pool of phenomenal women represent various sectors and industries like Technology, Healthcare, Education and more. The Social Media Category, which is the only global category, is open for voting by the general public till December 2, 2018.
Recipients of the 2018 Woman of the Year Award will be deliberated upon by a Council of Judges and celebrated at the Awards Ceremony and Networking Gala.
Tickets to attend the Awards Night are available for purchase and the HNWOTY team can be contacted via contact@hnwoty.com
Okapi Finance Founder, Gisele Mwepu, has been awarded as Africa’s Most Influential Woman Financial Services by CEO Global in Accra, Ghana.
Mwepu while receiving the award said it was “a true testimony that passion and hard work always rewards.”
CEO Global, a Business and Professional Services company, in the last 19 years, has been focusing on the identification of Africa’s leading talent and sharing their success stories throughout the continent.
The company honours excellence in the private and public sector which covers 23 economic sectors and has for close to two decades independently recognised those leaders who are at the pinnacle of their industry.
According to Annelize Wepener, Chief Executive of CEO Global, said, “nominees undergo a rigorous multi-tiered judging process.”
He noted that the programmes dispel the notion that Africa has a paucity of innovative and progressive leadership talent.
‘There are tremendously inspirational stories at the core of each winner’s professional and personal life story,” he said.
Wepener opined that the awardees “deserve the admiration and respect they are afforded, particularly Lifetime Achievers who have often been absolute pioneers in their field.”
Okapi Finance is also rolling out in Botswana, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by end of this year, with more countries being targeted in 2019. Okapi aims to be the pan-African solution and target to reach 145 million customers in the next 10 years.
Temiloluwa Balogun is fulfilling that dream by following her passion by changing the narrative unhealthy food consumption, She is the CEO of DawnJuice, a fast rising organic fruit juice and smoothies company in Nigeria. The young budding entrepreneur earned her degree in Microbiology from Olabisi Onabanjo University. Temi is strong advocate for healthy lifestyle. She continues to promote healthy living and lifestyle by carefully creating recipes to meet her family and clientele demands; encourages young people—especially women to choose healthy meal options.
She has supported and partnered with several organizations to drive the message of healthy lifestyle home , while she also runs her beauty and lifestyle outfit MO’s Crib Ventures on the side to further help women with their day to day lifestyle as it relates to beauty and make-up.
Temiloluwa who is happily married with children is also a certified Air hostess , In her words “ If I wasn’t into Juice business , I would have been a very successful air hostess because I commit myself to everything I do and give it my all”.
She shares her story with Esther Ijewere in this interview and shed more light on the need to eat and stay healthy.
Childhood Influence
I wouldn’t say Yes or No. But, all I can relate is that the church we attended back then fruits was always the order of the day,invariably I got introduced and exposed to fruits very early in life in varieties.
Meet Temi
A mother of three, who loves caring for her home. An entrepreneur and business woman who owns both Mo’s Crib and Dawn Juice (beauty and healthy lifestyle). I love caring for people around me, love togetherness, working with my team especially in areas of support and supervision. I’m very hardworking, humble, fun person, down to earth, takes responsibility and shares authority amongst workers accordingly. Happy to protect and serve her home, the people around her and give back to the society.
Inspiration behind Dawn Juice
I got inspired by a handful of thoughts, just to mention a few; I recall that fast foods and drinks was the order of the day for my generation while growing up. It was trendy and a breakaway from the normal home food making. Little did we know that like everything it has its own side effects. I wanted to change the narrative, and that’s where the inspiration for Dawn juice came from, I started with my immediate family and friends , moreso the society needs more awareness about living, eating and staying healthy, so since eating is one of the behavioral functions of humans for living, what goes into the esophagus should be healthy and 100% clean, organic and fresh. Our products are from natural fruit and vegetables contains no artificial preservative or additives which guarantees healthy lifestyle. To help the World in reducing sickness and diseases resulting from unhealthy eating and passing the healthy lifestyle culture to the incoming generation.
Challenges of running Dawn Juice
Dawnjuice deals with fresh, organic farm produce which are personally sorted for in a good state. The most dreadful challenge is when the fruits all get spoilt/rotten before used or when already processed and bottled up for sales and been kept in the fridge but the generator or fridge and or PHCN decides to give up at the same time and it all gets sour. It’s heart breaking and no juicing company wants to experience it. Luckily, we have been able to adjust by not relying solely on PHCN but also solar electricity
Another challenge is trying to change the narrative by breaking the cycle of unhealthy food, apparently most people are used to that, it’s also challenging that prospective buyers are always skeptical about the content of healthy drinks either because of previous experience with other brands or out of fear Thankfully, three of our products are NAFDAC approved, so quality is always guaranteed.
Another bottleneck is pricing. Most people may find it convenient to buy a N100 or N200 unhealthy drink than to buy a N600 to N1000 healthy drinks- juice or smoothies of the same Litres.
Cost of business in Lagos is quite high, ranging from electricity bills, transportation, licensing etc. this will definitely affect the price. However, we have worked so hard to keep the overhead costs so low while maintaining its quality recipe that the pricing is almost equivalent to do-it-yourself cost at home
Plans to hold a walk
Dawnjuice is working on starting up a walk campaign which will be held once every year or depending on the outcome of the first program when it commences. The campaign is a Walk against Disease, which is one of the major reasons Dawnjuice was birthed, we are also open to give support to and partner with any organization or company that gives back to the society.
Reward
Our greatest reward so far is been referred too with good and positive feedback. Our customers satisfaction is our main priority and we are also ready and happy to serve those buds with our healthy and hearty recipes.
DawnJuice in 5 years
In today’s competitive world, it’s our job to stay true to our product, quality, quantity and remain humble, stay friendly with our customers and remain consistent with them and have their satisfaction as our main goal at all times. With that been said our customers can only make it work with continuous demand from them and supply from us. I’m really excited about the future cause it takes drops of water to make an ocean, with continuous hard-work, teamwork and determination dreams do come through. Nothing is impossible if we put our minds to it, Dawnjuice moves in a steady pace, gradual is he that want to eat fat, so establishing branches in the various locations in Lagos and then other states to spread our vision throughout the country. Healthy eating is no longer expensive.
I will keep pushing against all odds
There’s hardly anything you set to do that someone else isn’t doing and that alone can get you thinking on how you’ll start and meet market standard and the thoughts of not been capable of sustaining in the market. At the beginning not having the necessary and right machinery to make work faster, effective and efficient. I almost gave up but with great support and encouragement, I went back to drawing board evaluated what exactly I needed and wanted to do. A lot of things can discourage one from attain success but with determination, set mind and focus all will be the thing of the past sooner or later.
My husband is my Inspiration
I got inspired by My Husband as I get to prepare Juice for him like every other day, as healthy living is a long term and continuous commitment and he was very conscious of his diet with the Juice added. That birthed the dream. Continuous attempts paved way for learning, exploring and researching into the World of Juicing, the juicing in small quantities been made, started growing progressively by the day and boom DAWNJUICE here I come.
More inspiration came as I get to influence people around me to living and eating better and healthy by adjusting their diet plan by adding Juice or smoothies to their meal plan.
Being a Woman of Rubies
I believe as a woman being independent goes a long way for us, our kids and the society at large, we need to wake up from the Mentality of keeping ourselves in the wall of our homes, care for the household and not mix and mingle with the ongoing events around us and our surroundings.
We have lots of talents and things to offer to the society, starting from been supportive to our husbands in every ramification, raising our kids and instilling good habits in them, been our sisters keeper at all times and helping fellow women instead making her feel inferior.
Are Nigerians well informed on the need to eat and drink healthy
Yes! Almost everyone is into one thing or the other it’s either you hear of Exercising (fitness club) or the Keto diet, smoothies cleansing etc. Everybody wants to live long in good health and so in achieving that they fall on any of the mentioned above. Staying in shape is trendy thing now – exercising and having a good diet, everything and anything at all that can make the old look younger. Farming is also beginning to resurface as fresh and organic crop product are more save and reliable to consume.
Why we support charitable causes
Dawnjuice loves to support and promote other business the little way we can cause we all need each other to grow, it gives us more exposure and opportunities and help reach our prospective customers , giving them an insight and knowledge about DawnJuice.
Prominent Ethiopian human rights lawyer Meaza Ashenafi has been elected as the first woman to head the country’s federal supreme court.
According to BBC, her name was put forward by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and MPs unanimously approved the appointment.
FANA BROADCASTING C@fanatelevisionShe was a founder of the #Ethiopia-n Women Lawyers Association (#EWLA) https://fanabc.com/english/2018/11/meaza-ashenafi-becomes-president-of-federal-supreme-court/ …
Photo Credit: Getty Images/snapshot-photography/ullstein bild
Credit:Bella Naija
Wear are a dynamic women’s media outfit speacializing inmedia, marketing, promotions, leadership and career growth services.
Don’t miss our future updates! Get Subscribed Today!
©2025. WomenofRubies. All Rights Reserved.
