Every Great Movement Begins with One Voice

Growing up, I was naturally shy. Outside my home, I rarely spoke. In school, I often knew the answers but lacked the confidence to raise my hand. My report cards frequently described me as “very quiet in class.” Sometimes, people even asked my mother if I was deaf because I hardly spoke. But I was not without ideas, dreams, or ambition. I simply had not yet found the confidence to express them.

Everything began to change during my secondary school years when I became involved in HIV/AIDS prevention education. I watched facilitators confidently speak to young people about health, relationships, self-protection, and informed choices. I became fascinated by the power of knowledge to change how people saw themselves and the decisions they made. I began to understand that knowledge is more than information. It can give people the power to protect themselves, make decisions, and shape their futures.

Years later, during my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), I was selected to participate in a UNICEF Life Skills training. That experience became a turning point. The training strengthened my communication, leadership, and interpersonal skills. More importantly, it challenged the self-doubt I had carried for years. I began speaking. I began participating. I began believing that my ideas mattered. I discovered something I had always possessed but had never fully recognized: I had a voice.

From Finding My Voice to Finding My Purpose

In 2010, another defining opportunity came. I was selected as a World Pulse Voices of Our Future Correspondent for Nigeria.

The programme introduced me to a global community of women using their voices and stories to advocate for gender equality, social justice, and change. During the six-month mentorship programme, my mentor encouraged me through affirmations and consistently reminded me that my dream mattered. At a time when I was still learning to believe in myself, someone else believed in me. That belief changed me.

As my confidence grew, I began looking around my community differently. I saw girls and women who reminded me of my younger self intelligent, capable, and full of dreams, yet often silent. Some were afraid because of violence or discrimination. Some had been taught that their opinions did not matter. Others lacked information, opportunities, supportive environments, or simply someone who believed in them. I realized that my story was not unique.

There were many girls who did not need someone to speak for them. They needed someone to help them discover that their own voices mattered.

That became my personal mission: If I could help one girl find her voice, she could change her own life. If I could help communities find their collective voice, those communities could change society.

That vision became the seed of the Grassroot People and Gender Development Center (GraDe).

The Birth of GRADE

I established GRADE in 2010, with formal registration following in 2014. I did not start the organization because I had all the answers. I started because I knew what it meant to move from silence to confidence and I wanted others to experience that transformation.

Over the years, GRADE has grown from an idea into a community-based organization working across gender equality, women and girls' empowerment, child protection, safeguarding, leadership and mentoring, community health, economic empowerment, climate action, menstrual health, digital skills, and inclusive community development.

Our work has taken us into communities, schools, women’s groups, online spaces, and partnerships with government institutions, civil society organizations, development partners, parents, community leaders, women, girls, and children. But behind every programme is one simple belief: People become agents of change when they are empowered to believe in themselves, speak up for their rights, and lead solutions within their communities.

Turning My Voice into Action

One of the initiatives closest to my heart is Girls Corner, a safe online mentoring and support platform created to connect girls, provide guidance, share information, and encourage them to believe in themselves.

What began as a small space has grown into a community of more than 2000 girls. Through the Girls Leadership and Mentoring Programme (GLAMP), we continue to support girls to build confidence, develop leadership skills, understand their rights, and find the courage to speak.

Our work in child protection and safeguarding has also become a major part of GRADE’s identity. Through community sensitization, school-based activities, capacity building, and stakeholder engagement, we work to protect children from violence, abuse, exploitation, child labour, and other forms of harm.

For me, child protection is not only about responding when harm occurs. It is about creating communities where children are listened to, respected, protected, and safe.

Empowering Women to Become Stronger

Women’s empowerment remains at the heart of my work. One experience that particularly stands out was our training of female public tricycle (Keke) drivers in Lagos on road safety and the need to be proud of their job. Thereby promoting decent jobs for women and empowering them as Gender Based Violence Activists. These women were working in a space often seen as male-dominated. The training was not simply about road safety. It was also about recognizing women as economic actors who deserve access to information, skills, dignity, safety, and opportunities. It reminded me that empowerment means meeting people where they are and helping them become safer, stronger, more confident, and more successful.

I have also learned that economic empowerment is closely connected to child protection. When women have knowledge, income, confidence, and support systems, families become more resilient and children have greater opportunities to grow in safe environments.

Health, Dignity and Wellbeing

With my background in health, community health promotion has naturally become part of my work. I have supported health education and community-based initiatives that make health information more accessible to women, children, and vulnerable populations.

In 2025, I initiated the Healthy Ageing Fiesta, creating a space for elderly women to focus on their physical, emotional, and social wellbeing. The programme included blood pressure checks, nutrition support, emotional wellbeing activities, and gentle physical exercises. It reminded me that empowerment must include people across the life course not only young women and girls. I have also worked on menstrual health and hygiene, helping girls and women understand menstruation, challenge stigma, and access practical information. For me, menstrual health is not simply a health issue. It is about dignity, education, confidence, and equality.

Preparing People for a Changing World

As technology continues to reshape opportunities, GRADE has embraced digital skills development. Through our training programmes, we support young people, entrepreneurs, students, and women with practical digital and financial skills that can improve their participation in the digital economy.

We are also increasingly engaging communities on climate action and environmental education, encouraging young people to understand that they are not merely victims of environmental challenges. They can become part of the solution.

Leadership development runs through everything we do.

Whether I am working with a young girl, a woman entrepreneur, a female Keke driver, a community volunteer, a child safety ambassador, or a community leader, my goal is to help people recognize their ability to influence change.

What Success Means to Me

I have learned that a programme is not successful simply because we trained a certain number of people or organized an event.

For me, success is transformation.

It is when a girl who was afraid to speak begins to ask questions.

It is when a woman realizes that she has the right to make decisions about her life.

It is when a female Keke driver gains knowledge that helps her navigate the road more safely and confidently.

It is when a child understands that abuse is not their fault and that they can seek help.

It is when a community realizes that it has the power to identify and solve its own problems.

And it is when someone who once said “I cannot” begins to say:

“I can.”

That is the transformation I have spent years working towards.

Why I Continue

My journey has taught me that empowerment does not always begin with a big opportunity.

Sometimes, it begins with one person saying: “I believe in you.”

Sometimes, it begins with a safe space where a girl can ask a question without being laughed at.

Sometimes, it begins with a woman learning that she has rights.

Sometimes, it begins with a child discovering that an adult will listen and protect them.

And sometimes, it begins with someone who has spent years being silent finally saying:

“This is what I want. This is what I deserve. This is what I believe.”

I know what it feels like to struggle to speak.

I know what it feels like when someone believes in you before you fully believe in yourself.

And I know the power of finding your voice.

That is why I continue.

My Voice Became GRADE - Grassroot People and Gender Development Center

When I look back—from the shy girl who rarely spoke to becoming the founder of an organization working with women, girls, children, and communities—I am reminded of how powerful one opportunity can be.

World Pulse gave me a platform to tell my story, a mentor who believed in my vision, and a community that reminded me that my voice had value.

Today, I am still telling stories.

But I am also creating spaces for other women and girls to tell theirs.

My story began with finding my voice. GRADE became the expression of what I decided to do with that voice.

My responsibility is not simply to speak for those who are unheard. It is to help create the conditions where they can speak for themselves.

Because one voice can inspire another.

One empowered girl can influence her family.

One confident woman can transform her community.

And when many voices come together, they can transform society.

GRADE is more than an organization to me.

It is the continuation of my own journey.

And every day, through our work in girls’ mentoring, child protection, women’s empowerment, youth leadership, and community development, I use that voice to create spaces where others can find theirs.

I do not know how far this journey will take me.

But I know why I started.

I started because I was once a shy girl who struggled to speak.

Today, my life’s work is helping others discover their voices.

And perhaps that is the most powerful lesson of my journey:

Transformation can begin quietly.

Sometimes, it begins with a shy girl finally raising her hand.

Sometimes, it begins with one person saying, “I believe in you.”

And sometimes, that one voice becomes a movement.

I found my voice.

I used it to start GRADE.

And I will continue using it to help others find theirs