The power of Courage

Hey! We are in the month of March! In the United States, the month of March is Women's History Month and we celebrate International Women's Day in March

As I think about these monumental periods, I'll like to share a story of a group of women that took courageous steps during a difficult time. Born and raised in Benin City, Nigeria Grace was the first granddaughter to attend boarding school amongst a family of women traders. Her grandmother, being the Matriarch of the family, was respected in the market place and was often sought after for counsel. During the Biafra war, a lot of people fled major cities in the south like Benin City for fear of being killed. Grace made her way back to Benin City when her boarding school shut down as a result of the war. Upon reaching home and with great joy from her mom, aunts , her grandmother announced that they will be leaving Benin City for the village. Upon hearing this, Grace resisted because she did not want to go to the village and began asking her grandmother questions. "Where are we going to stay?" "What are you going to do in the village?" Who will give farming land to us? Who knows how to farm amongst us?" After asking several probing questions, her grandmother decided that it was better for the family to stay back in Benin City. Staying back worked out well for them. They leveraged what they were good at, which is trading and their wealth grew. As Grace reflected, she realized her grandmother took a risk keeping the family in Benin and was thankful that her grandmother valued her voice despite being so young. Grace comes from a line of strong-willed, independent women with self-made wealth. Grace is also my mother :-)

You may be asking, why does this story matter? As we celebrate women history month and international women's day, remember that these events would not have existed if women didn't take risks. So dear woman, take the risk and discover what you are made of. Gold only gets refined by fire. Secondly we are a force when we work together so encourage your sisters, girlfriends, daughters and mothers to be their best selves and help each other because we are the ones who are capable of making positive and lasting changes for our future generation.

Happy International Women's Day!