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In Career Gems By

Mo ABUDU’S EBONY LIFE TV SIGNS CONTRACT WITH SONY PICTURES

Mo Abudu, Ceo of EbonyLife TV has now in partnership with international production company Sony Pictures Television to distribute three television series around the world.

She wrote on her Instagram page,

“Beautiful people 💕💕 I am pleased to announce to you all, the good news that I promised to share with you.
EbonyLife Limited and Sony Pictures Television has signed a 3 year deal on 3 exciting scripted TV projects set to be distributed internationally, yes!! To networks around the world👏🏾👏🏾 The 3 year project deal is the first of its kind, between Sony Pictures and a Nigerian/African company.

Our 3 projects will include a TV series inspired by The Dahomey Warriors. This action packed series inspired by true events took place in the West African kingdom of Dahomey in 1890’s.

This is an empowering story of the all-female warriors from our continent!!! I could not be more proud as we developed this story👏🏾. I thank Sony for being such visionaries, for committing huge resources to this project. The plans for these projects are massive. To include A-listers as part of our cast. I am talking: Game of Thrones, Outlanders, Marco Polo. This is the level of support being made by Sony Pictures.

But what also gladdens my heart, is that there will also be great opportunities for cast and crew from across the continent to include Nigeria, of course,🇳🇬 This is a true partnership.

Thank you Sony Pictures TV for believing in us.

I have said time and time again, “if you can think it, you can do it”. My vision for EbonyLife has always been to take our stories to the world, and to change our narrative and now we have an opportunity to do this with a world-class organization such as Sony Pictures.
My Lord and God, thank you.🙏🏾🙏🏾 I congratulate the EbonyLife team on all the hard work that has brought us this far.

To my mum, my kids, sisters, friends, thank you all so much for your love, support, and prayers.

Hollywood here we come, meet Nollywood💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽 In this picture with me are; Mark Young, Senior Vice President, Distribution & Sales UK, Ireland, Africa, Iberia at Sony Pictures and
Kunle Falodun, Vice President Distribution Africa – Sony Pictures.”

View her post below.

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TWO NIGERIAN SISTERS GET FEATURED IN VOGUE ITALIA’S THE NEXT GREEN TALENTS

Nigerian sisters and designers,Sylvia Enekwe-Ojei and Olivia Enekwe-Okoji have been featured in  Vogue Italia’s The Next Green Talents.

Born in the east, the sisters stared designing with their mother who was a tailor, they learnt the art of design and sewing by watching her and working with her.

They are part of the next generation designers Vogue is working with. In the interview, they spoke on the inspiration of their designs ,the challenges they faced building up their brand, Gozel Green, and plans for the future.

Read the interview here

 

 

 

Source: fabwoman.ng

 

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GHANIAN WOMAN LAUNCHES WOMEN-ONLY RIDE SHARING PLATFORM IN TORONTO

Two weeks ago, Aisha Addo launched DriveHer, a women-only ride sharing platform. Aisha, a Ghanaian who lives in Toronto, Canada, was motivated to start DriveHer after an experience with a taxi driver left her uncomfortable.

She was in a taxi going from a friend’s house to her home in Mississauga when her cab driver started asking her uncomfortable questions.

Aisha Addo (Photo: CBC)

It’s a story many women can identify with. She says:

“He was asking me if I lived alone, and for me that was a bit triggering, because I happened to. Then he started asking if I had a boyfriend, and then [there] just started to be some really weird sexual innuendos. I became a bit guarded.

It sort of got me thinking later on, ‘What about the people whose phones are off, or they don’t really have anyone to call?'”

She then called a friend who she asked to stay on the phone with her for the rest of the ride. She made it home safe, but that taxi ride, along with nights as a designated driver for her friends and hearing multiple news of women getting assaulted and harassed, inspired her to create DriveHer.

“Funny enough, the moment we sort of brought out the concept or idea of DriveHer, I think within that week there were five or six incidents of women that have been assaulted or women that have experienced some sort of violence.”

DriveHer (Photo: DriveHer)

(Photo: DriveHer)

Aisha acknowledges that other ride-sharing services allow riders to specifically request female drivers, but she says DriveHer goes above and beyond existing options.

“There’s so many ride-sharing services, let’s not get that wrong, and that’s amazing, but then there was never really any option for women and people that identify as women. What DriveHer is, is providing an option and creating an equitable space where women and people who identify as women have that option.”

Essentially, while the platform functions like every other existing ride-sharing app, it’s unique in that the the app doesn’t allow male passengers or drivers. And, all the (female) drivers go through the police and criminal background checks that are standard for other ride-sharing services and training specific for its service.

 

 

  1. Credit: konbini.com
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CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE BONDS WITH OPRAH AT A TEA PARTY

On the 11th of March, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie attended an afternoon tea event in honor of American media personality, Oprah Winfrey.

The event was hosted in London by Vogue editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful, to celebrate Oprah’s role in the film A Wrinkle In Time.

The huge smile plastered on Chimamanda’s face was proof of her excitement at meeting the highly revered Oprah.

Talking to Oprah, the novelist said: ““What an absolute force for good in the world, Aunty O: authenticity, grace, humor, generosity of spirit, endlessly in touch with her strength and her humanity. I am so grateful that you exist.”

We have more photos below

 

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BLESSING OKAGBARE BREAKS 22-YEAR AFRICAN RECORD

Nigerian Athlete, Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteghonor has ran an impressive 22.04 seconds in the 200m race at the Wes Kittley Invitational Track and Field Meet at the Abilene Christian University.

Apart from becoming the new African record, Okagbare’s winning time also becomes the new national record in the women’s 200m. Okagbare’s previous personal best in the event was 22.23secs and was set at the 2014 Eugene Diamond League.

Her feat has erased the 200m women African record held by Mary Onyali-Omagbemi since August 1996.

With her latest exploit, it means that Okagbare at the moment holds the Nigerian records in the women’s 100m (10.79secs) and 200m.

The Wes Kittley Invitational was her first competition of the season as Okagbare did not compete in the indoor season, which started in January.

The 26-year-old is one of the 37 athletes listed by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria to participate at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, which begins on April 4.

 

 

 

Credit: fabwoman.ng

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Esther - Women of Rubies
In self development By

ESTHER IJEWERE: SIMPLE SECRETS OF STAYING HAPPY

Staying happy they say ensures good health. But, is it that easy to stay happy today in the world of stress, anxiety and depression? Well, they are a part of everyday life and it is normal for each of us to have a bad day some times. So, do not just let your spirits down with such days, and focus more on staying happy. Here are few quick tips that will help you relieve all your everyday stress

1. Do what you like to do – Keeping in view the busy schedules, it is quite natural, that most of us tend to get lazy by the end of the day. So, the best way to be happy is to do what you like, for instance you could hit the gym, or could join a dance class.

2. Head out, meet people– Do not just while away your weekends. Plan out short trips, or throw a party at home. Meeting new people, will relieve your tensions and anxiety, keeping your mind at peace.

3. Talk to your loved ones- It is important to let out your problems in order to get a solution to it. Have nobody who will listen to you? Talk to God, he listens.

4. Ensure proper sleep cycles – I am bad at this myself, but it is very important to keep your mind balanced, in turn playing a big role in helping you to be happy. Sleeping properly will get you happy morning, and a good start of the day, is always a good sign.

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SIJU YUSUF: KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE GOAL

A goal yet to be identified cannot be tracked. That said, the journey of keeping the eyes on the goal starts with identifying what the goal is. May I also add at this point that a goal only ruminated upon usually does not enjoy actuation. Write it down! Again I say, WRITE THE VISION DOWN!

The crux of this article is not on why you need to write the vision down, hence my not dwelling on it however, for the sake of emphasis, write your vision down, you can run faster when you see your template.

Keeping your eyes on the goal… First off, having identified your goal (s), how about identifying your priorities? One of the grounding forces of your success is the ability to identify what is expedient per time, more like, what is needful. A lot of businesses/endeavours with potentials have suffered demises simply because the anchor did not focus on priorities.

Distractions will always come. I do not only mean distractions in the capes of unimportant issues, I am talking about distractions in the sense of pertinent matters but that are not supposed for the present. Things that will propel you but are not supposed to be the focus at the time.

May I also call your attention to a form of distraction strikingly common when you are pressing towards a goal? Other people’s self-limiting beliefs. Now, I do not want you thinking all these people are evil and do not want you to be successful because, some are only operating on fear… fear of the unknown. They would rather you remain at the ‘familiar’ zone. However/Whatever is the basis for these projected beliefs, know that often times, people are projecting the struggles they have within. These struggles are not yours. They are the inadequacies and fears of these people. Again, IDENTIFY YOUR GOALS. Out of fear/love/hated/envy and so forth, people will try hard to distract you, convince you that your plans are too lofty, that your plans are not feasible. You can choose to listen or ignore in which case; the latter is ultimately workable when you have identified your goals.

KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE GOAL (1)

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“NEVER ALLOW YOURSELLF FEEL LIKE YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING” – BOLA BANWO

Bolanle Banwo is a brand Identity designer from Lagos, Nigeria. She helps brands tell compelling stories via creative designs. Much of her work is centered around helping small and medium businesses create smart impressions and build strong identities via good communication designs. Bolanle is the Founder and Lead Creative at the Female Designer Movement, an initiative she launched with a mission to train and equip women with design skillset and thereby help increase the number of women in the Nigerian Technology ecosystem. She shares her story and the inspiration behind her initiative in this interview.

Growing Up
I have always loved Art and Art related subjects right from nursery school. I found myself always illustrating on paper and anything I could find. I drew so much all my school notes were filled with drawings from the back. For me drawing came naturally and it was a way to ease myself. I think all those experiences contributed in preparing me for today.

Meet Me
I’m Banwo Omobolanle , a Brand Identity, User Interface / User experience designer, Illustrator and Animator. I am the Founder and Lead Creative at The Female Designer Movement, an initiative borne out of my desire to see more women actively involved in the Nigerian Technology / Design ecosystem.
I’m also a lover of good food and I hope to travel to china soon to have a plate of their locally made noodles in spicy soup.

Being a Brand Identity designer
Basically, I help brands tell compelling visual stories through intelligent design, illustrations and animations. Every brand has a unique identity and message that they would like to convey to their audience. My job entails coming up with creative visual content.

Challenges
People say Nigeria is beginning to embrace Art, But I think even if we are…It’s not fast enough. We need more initiatives in place to protect Art and everything related to it. My dream is to see people confidently take up Design as a profession without fear of not earning enough.

Inspiration behind Female Designer Movement
The Female Designer Movement is an initiative I launched to equip women with design skillset. I have nursed the idea in my heart for a while and decided to go ahead and launch it this year. Our first meetup held on the third of March while the other was held on March 10th. We had over 150 ladies who registered for the sessions. The response has been awesome and exciting, and we’ve only just started.
The ultimate goal is to increase the number of women in the Design and Tech industry. I desire to see more and more women get technical skillsets and take on important roles on tech companies and work on interesting projects in the industry. We intend to reach more females in secondary schools and keep training and creating opportunities for more and more of them across the country and then we’ll to other African countries eventually. It’s a huge project and I’m excited at the interesting journey that lies ahead of us. We plan to go even bigger, to reach out to more women around Nigeria. We can only achieve this by getting the support we need. So we are open to partnerships and support from individuals and organisations.


Reward
As regards TFDM, my greatest reward is the genuine joy and satisfaction displayed on the faces of the people we trained. Knowing that what I do or did helped add tangible value to their lives, which will go on to affect their careers…it’s a priceless feeling.
I think it’s about the same thing with my other works with brands that I create designs for. The satisfaction they show at the work I deliver, and knowing how important it is to them is actually very encouraging. I like to do work that matters and being able to achieve that is the greatest reward anyone can hope for.

Where I see my brand in 5 years
I see us becoming the most recognized training institute for women in Nigeria. I also see us making immeasurable impact in other African countries as well.

Giving up
Definitely, there were times I felt like just leaving this profession to do something completely different. I held on because of the genuine love I have for design. I place fulfilment above everything other thing.

Who and what inspire me to be better
I have a couple of people who have inspired me over time. Paula Scher and Chris Do are some of these people. I am inspired by the work that they do and the impact that they make.

Being a Woman of Rubies
Over time, I have had to be strong, focused and relentless. I have seen myself grow into becoming the woman I am now. I have not allowed obstacles stop me from doing what I love.

Final word for young women all over the world
I would like to encourage every young woman not to give up on themselves and on their dreams, Don’t look down on yourself and never allow yourself feel like you can’t do anything. Learn, develop yourself, your skill and of course tell God your plans so he can show you the best way to achieve it. You can be anything. You can do anything.

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