I do not live in New York. I am miles away from it, but yesterday I successfully talked a good friend of mine who lives in New York, Zainab Shelley who is also on the Fulbright programme teaching Hausa, to attend an event that I felt held some significance for me, for this blog and for Nigeria. It was titled 2020 Vision: Mobilizing for Women’s Rights and Eliminating Violence Against Women and it was held at the John Tishman Auditorium at the New School for Social Research.
The speakers included Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace laureate, 2003; Founder, Defenders of Human Rights Center, Iran, Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mary Robinson, President, Realizing Rights, former President of Ireland and former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and Melanne Verveer, United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues.
The event was doubly memorable because by 12noon New York time, the winner of the WLP Essay Competition featuring about 100 entries from over thirty-three countries was announced, and it was no other person than Temitayo Olofinlua – the same Temitayo of Bookaholic Blog who is not new to this blog and has always left comments on almost all the blog posts since September. Her entry was titled On Fear, a powerful exposition on the challenges of women in Nigeria and most of developing countries of the world.
I feel proud to be associated with her, not only because of the brilliance of the entry, but also because of the humility, dedication and hardwork of the strong young woman that bears the name, Temitayo Olofinlua. Congratulations from me, from Zainab, and from all of KTravula.com.
Alton, IL
