Editor
First, for those who do not know, feminism is a movement borne out of the need to achieve political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. It is basically the belief that women and men should have equal rights and opportunities.
Nigeria has a growing community of feminists who are very vocal on Social Media. Many times, these ‘daughters of Chimamanda’ come under vicious attack, because they are trying to change the status quo they consider oppressive for women. Sometimes, they are accused of not doing anything except rant online, so based on thread by @_LOHI_ on Twitter, we are curating a list of known feminists and the work they are doing to better their societies, on and offline.
This list is not exhaustive, and additions are welcome.
- @duchesskk started @freesanitarypad in January 2017 to address the needs of 65% of the Nigerian female population who do not have access to sanitary pads. So far, they have distributed thousands of pads to thousands of girls across Nigeria.
- @AyodejiOsowobi founded @StandtoEndRape which seeks to dismantle rape culture in Nigeria. Amongst other accolades, she is a recipient of the 2017 Future Awards prize for Advocacy.
- @KingNelo2 founded @ConsentWorkshop. She was also responsible for exposing a lot of abusers on Twitter, which led to lots of people discussing consent in June 2018
- @TGLMspeak founded by @DoreenGLM. A community for women to actually talk on issues they care about. She also has a blog for this.
- @WRInitiative founded by @ljsonline_ . An NGO that sheds light on systemic oppression and gives voices to women all over
- @Moechivious is the legal counsel of @StandToEndRape. She is also building @Scalemyhustle to help entrepreneurs launch and grow valuable businesses.
- @taginitiativeng founded by @preshgaza. Focuses on Girl child education.
- @kikimordi founder of @Document_Women a platform that helps women share their stories.
- @WWNBSNigeria addressing sexual assault and rape was founded by @tamilore_b . One of the many young women who has taken it upon herself to create an environment where we can bring awareness and educate people on this issue!
- @ladekale and @dammydamsk founded @Here2Help_NG where they speak against child labor, the ills of the domestic services industry in Nigeria and give female domestic workers access to quality formal and informal education. Lade also cofounded @HandsOffNG, an organization teaching young boys and girls consent.
- @agcdsi founded by @SuperGirlTimidi An organisation that carries out intervention, research and Advocacy on issues that affect African Girls e.g Teenage Pregnancy, breasts ironing etc. She also cofounded @PlannedGirls where they create safe spaces for adolescent girls, give sex education, help them Access family planning etc.
- @thegirdlengr an NGO dedicated to fighting female genital mutilation
- @OmogeDami recently started @MarketMarch to end sexual misconduct, harassment and bullying in the market place so women can feel safe occupying public spaces.
- @Playm8z @Jollz and @FKAbudu are behind eradicatechildlabour.com
- @YarKafanchan founded @politiSHEan, which focuses on building the careers of women in politics, telling their stories and celebrating them.
- @OdunEweniyi is the co-founder of the hugely popular savings platform – PiggyBank. She also started @wineandwhineng, a platform for intersectional feminists to collaborate
- @SimiOlusola founded and runs @AspilosFoundatn where they implement @AboCoders among other projects. AboCoders is bringing young Nigerian women into STEM and bridging the ‘Digital Divide’ by providing free digital literacy & software development training.
- @MsNemah is a foremost activist who has done a lot for the displaced people in the North East of the country. Some of the outreaches include Ball for Borno, Feed a Person this Ramadan, IT4IDP, etc.
- @buky is the executive director of @EVA_Nigeria who work to improve sexual and reproductive rights and education to young people.
- @Laraoriye is a human rights lawyer with a focus on women and lgbtq rights. She works at @TIERsNigeria with another feminist @xeenarh.
- @deaduramilade has collaborated with NGOs like StandToEndRape, Sanitary Aid, etc. She founded @_SheDesigns to help interested women learn and improve both soft skills and design specific skills including UI, UX, Content Strategy, etc. They are helping women become leaders in their Design careers.
