Nigeria

Her passion driving conversations around the plight of disability in Nigeria led her to establishing the Amputees United Initiative, a social group specifically for amputees. She is a Goalkeeper (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) who uses her advocacy to push for the inclusion of persons living with disability in Nigeria.

"Disability also opens you up to one reality—the reality of the inequality that exists among people living with disabilities across genders. For instance, people believe that physical disability in women also impedes fertility. It's yet another eye opener into the different realities that exist in our community.”

Ada is the Founder of She Code Africa (SCA), a non-profit organisation focused on empowering young girls and women across Africa through technical skills. She has been awarded as one of Ytech 100 honourees by the Future awards Africa 2019, Top 50 TechWomen of Lagos by TechCabal and most recently awarded as the winner of the role model award category in the Booking.com Tech Playmaker awards 2020

"Empowering the girl child with skills to level up, highlighting their untold success stories to the rest of the world, will continue to prove one of the fastest ways to achieving gender equality in the spheres we seek across the world."

Wana Udobang is a storyteller and artist working at the intersection of writing, poetry, performance and film. Her poetry interrogates memory, womanhood, healing and re-imagination.

“I think that culture and creative expression can be a phenomenal portal into accessing the nuances of our existence. A conduit in navigating our histories, traumas, memories and joys, yet doing that work of reimagining the look, feel and taste of our futures. As people, as women, as creators, expression is part of our liberation practice. It is how we survive. It is how we thrive.”

Ruona Meyer is an Emmy-nominated, multimedia journalist with 17 years’ experience, across print, radio, wire agency, TV and digital outlets across Nigeria, South Africa, and the UK. She is currently a PhD candidate at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK; her research interrogates the construct of networked power within investigative journalism nonprofits, specifically covering the impact of digital technologies on investigative journalism production within African-Diaspora networks.

"Sociocultural norms that say women must have something protruding on their chests to be sensual and normal, [it's] why many African women die of breast cancer – they seek help too late. In a world that links femininity, sexuality and self-worth to breasts, my flat chest is my placard – a symbol of my defiance to society’s patriarchal standards."