WHEN LOVE FOR NATION SURPASSES LOVE FOR FAT ACCOUNT: ORY OKOLLOH

"....ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." - John . F. Kennedy.

Ory Okollor is a transparency activist, a former policy manager, Africa for Google, a Harvard trained lawyer and blogger. She is a co-founder of Ushahidi ('testify' or 'witness' in Swahili), a revolutionary free open source platform for crowdsourcing crisis information. Ushahidi enables journalists, citizen and eyewitnesses all over the world to report incidences of violence through Google Maps, mobile-Email, and text messages. It has since been adapted for other purposes such as 'monitoring elections and tracking pharmaceutical availability' and has been used in a number of other countries like India, Mexico, Haiti and Eastern Congo and Washington D.C for traffic issues. She is the World Economic Forum (WEF) global young leader, mother of three and currently, a Director of Investments at Omidyar Network.


As a director of Investments for Omidyar's government transparency, Ory makes it her mission not to give aid but to support African entrepreneurs and citizens in building their own societies.


"I care for the World I live and want to have an impact." She says in one of her interviews, with a mindset like this, it's no wonder that Ory rejected a mouthwatering job offer she got from D. C. law firm back in the United States in 2007 after her law degree in 2005, to come back home to fight for more accountability, and transparency in the Kenyan government giving hope of better life to millions.

Born in 1977, in Kenya, into a relatively poor family, she was routinely thrown out of school because her parents couldn't afford fees but today held a B.A degree in Political science from University of Pittsburgh and a J.D from Harvard law school. Ory lives in Johannesburg with her husband and three children. She lost her father to AIDS in 1999.

Prior to co-founding Ushahidi, Ory founded Mzalendo ('Patriot' in Swahili), a website that helps Kenya's electorate monitor the activities of the Members of Parliament. The site closely monitors every bill, every speech and every Member of Parliament who passes through Kenya's Parliament, hence promoting transparency and accountability in the Kenya's government.

She resigned as director of Ushahidi in 2010 when Eric Schmidt of Google offered her a management job at Google, Ory saw the offer as an opportunity to do more for her people and Africa at large, for the job entails, expanding internet space in Africa, and making it affordable, also getting more Africans online especially the youths, and making sure they have contents available online that will help them re-shape their future, it's a bigger picture, so in 2011, Ory took up the job.

Ory aside her job, is a frequent speaker at conferences including World Economic Forum, Mobile Web Africa, Monaco Media Forum, TED, and others, where issues ranging from the role of young people in reshaping the future of Africa, to the role of technology in Africa and also to citizen journalism, this, she does despite her already busy schedule as a working mother and wife.

While in law school, she interned with the World Bank's Department of Institutional Integrity and worked as a summer associate at Covington and Burling, Washington D.C. She has also in the past, worked as a legal consultant for NGOs and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

"Breathes there the man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land." - Walter Scott.

LESSON: We can have a better society if each can contribute or bring in what he/she can to the good of the society, if we, in addition to what we love to do, add, 'love to impact on lives in my world.'

SARA KABA JONES: ONE EXCEPTIONAL YOUNG AFRICAN WOMAN

photocredit: blackenterprise.com

"The meaning of life is to Find your Gift. The purpose of life is to Give it Away." - Pablo Picasso.

Until one finds ones purpose on earth, one will always feel empty even when all seems to be going well. Sara Jones, who is she?

Sara Kaba Jones, is a clean water advocate and social entrepreneur from Liberia, born on June 21, 1982 in Monrovia, Liberia, she is a Liberian/American, founder and chief executive director of FACE Africa and also a Goodwill Ambassador for River Cess County. Her father, Dr. Brahima D. Kaba is a career diplomat and public servant and her mother, a business woman.

Sara is a firm believer in the private sector as the best possible option for sustainable social and economic change. This is why she made it to our top lists of Africa Women that are inspiring, we should not work only to make a living but to also be a blessing to others.

Growing up for Sara means spending her formative years moving from one country to another as a result of the Liberian's civil war and her father's diplomatic postings, at age 8, Sara left Liberia to Cote d'Ivoire her maternal home as a result of the civil war, after 2 years, she moved to Egypt following her father's diplomatic posting as an Ambassador, from there to France and Cyprus before moving to the United States in 1999 to attend college.

In 2009, after working for the Singaporean government economic development for 5 years, she resigned and launched a non-profit organization called FACE Africa which focusses on providing access to a clean water in River Cess County, a rural community in Liberia, a community believed to be one of the most marginalized regions in Liberia, under-reserved in water and sanitation and least likely to be served through the efforts of government and other agencies.

The first project carried out by FACE Africa was in late 2009 in Barnesville, Greater Monrovia, when the organization won a $10,000 grant from the Davis Project for Peace, with the money, they installed a water purification system, known by its trade name as the Skyhydrant, a purification system that is capable of producing up to 20,000 litres of drinking water per day and approximately 300 people benefited from it.

Since its inception, FACE Africa has done about 20 projects and has raised over $250,000 for clean water projects in Liberia and more than 10,000 residents have benefited from these projects.

In January 2013, Face Africa launched an ambitious new initiative known as County-by-County or CbC which intends to build 250 water points over 3 to 5 year period, to address the county's challenge in meeting the Millennium Development Goal for water by 2017. The project once completed, will benefit over 60,000 residents, and will ensure that River Cess meets the Liberian Government's 250 persons per safe waterpoint standard. She recently co-founded Empire Group, a Monrovia based company to create businesses in the areas of small-scale manufacturing, agriculture, and hospitality.

Honours and Awards

In 2012, in recognition of her commitment to clean water initiatives in Liberia, Sara was appointed International Goodwill Ambassador for the county of River Cess, Liberia. In 2013, Sara was listed by the Guardian UK as one of Africa's 25 Top Women Achievers alongside President Joyce Banda of Malawi and Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee. Same year, she was also named a 2013 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader along with 198 young leaders from 70 countries, to mention but these because she has been honoured with other prestigious awards for her work in clean water in county River Cess and has been profiled in giant media like CNN Inside Africa, BBC Focus on Africa Magazine, Boston Globe, Harper's Bazaar Arabia, ARISE Magazine.

She is truly an inspiring woman.

LESSON: You can never go wrong giving. The true essence of life is in helping other people meet their needs. Give not because you have so much but because you understand what is like not to have at all

BEAUTY WITH A DIFFERENCE: BASETSANA KUMALO

photocredit: wowelle.com

"Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more." - Anthony Robbins. Such is the case of this beauty, whom you cannot mention personalities in South Africa without mentioning her name, in giving, she has become more, who is she?

Basetsana Kumalo is a South African television personality, former Miss South Africa, a media mogul, business woman and philanthropist, she is married to Romeo Kumalo, a vodacom executive and former broadcaster, with whom she has three children, the couple got married in 2000, after dating for three years.

Basetsana was born on March 29, 1974 in Soweto Johannesburg, South Africa. She came into the limelight in 1990 at age 16 when she was crowned Miss Soweto, and Miss Black South Africa. In 1994, Kumalo won Miss South Africa, making her the second black woman to win the title after Jacqui Mofokeng. In the same year, she became the first runner-up in Miss World pageant. Her Father, Philip Makgalemele, was a bus driver, he died in 2003 and her mother, Beatrice Makgalemele was a school teacher, she also died in 2006.

Basetsana started her primary school in Soweto at Thabisang Primary Schhol, but was later sent to school in Lenasia, a suburb in South of Johannesburg when Soweto schools became unstable in 1986. To keep the family going, Kumalo with her two sisters and brother spent their early years making and selling sandwiches at soccer matches every weekend.

Her initial career plan was to become a teacher after her mother, but while she was a student at the University of Venda, studying Education, her mother entered her for Miss South Africa pageant which she won. Winning Miss South Africa, took her career path to television, she started presenting for Top Billing, a lifestyle television programme, produced for SABC3 during her reign, later she went into partnership with the show's producer, Patience Stevens. The two formed Tswelopele Productions with kumalo owning a fifty-percent stake.

This became her first major move in business line, she has since gone to own businesses, Basetsana, today is the President of Business Women South Africa and one of the youngest black women directors to be part of the mainstream of the South African economy, as a result of Tswelopele merger with Union Alliance Media which got Tswelopele listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE).

With Basetsana on board, Top Billing became an instant success, its success also brought more projects to Tswelopele brand, such as the Afrikaans magazine programme Pasella on SABC2 and the Swati youth show Seskohona on SABC1, and a morning breakfast show on SABC, Expresso. In 2001, Kumalo joined Gauteng Travel Academy as a director.

The exposure she gained in the media as a beauty queen, got Kumalo endorsement deals, she was made Face of Revlon's Realistic Hair Care range for both Sub-Sahara Africa and the international market, she served as their spokesperson for five years.

Kumalo later launched her own eyewear range named 'Bassie.' Bassie is distributed in 60 stores nationwide, through Torga Optical eye care and also a clothing range, 'Stature Ladies Wear by Bassie' which was distributed in over 240 outlets in Sub-Saharan Africa through Ackerman's brand, though the brand has since been discontinued. She further launched the 'Bassie Red cosmetics textrange into Foschini stores nationwide, followed with the Bassie Gold range in 2006.

Her Charity work

Kumalo and her husband, launched the Romeo & Basetsana Kumalo Family Foundation, which focuses on developing children, specifically orphaned by AIDS and related diseases. Kumalo also joined actress Salma Hayek in the bid to eradicate neonatal and material tetanus in the world, as spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund and nappy brand Pamper's campaign to save more than 250 million infants by 2012. She has also raised money for Baragwanath Children's Hospital with Dr. Precious Moloi-Motsepe. Kumalo volunteers with Agang Sechaba, a project that was started in 2007 by Nomsa Ntshingila, which focuses at giving back to the townships in which they were born.

Kumalo in 2004, was voted 74th on the list of 100 Greatest South Africans in 2004, the only Miss South Africa in the list, plus other recognisable awards which puts her amongst the top personalities in South Africa, and as a fashion Icon. She was a favourite of Nelson Mandela and as such, received an honorary scholarship for Overseas Studies from him in 1994.

LESSON: We are blessed to be a blessing, and we rise by lifting others.

THE NOMAD MODEL: WARIS DARIS

photocredit: desertflowerfoundation.org

Waris Dirie is a nomad Somali model, author, actress, women's right activist and UN Special Ambassador (1997-2003), a mother of four. She was born in the year 1965 in Galkayo, Somalia to a nomadic family. At thirteen years of age, she was arranged to marry an older man sixty-five years of age but she escaped and fled to Mogadishu to live with her older sister and her family. Waris lived briefly there and later moved to London, along with a few relatives, where she resided with and worked for an uncle who had been appointed Somali ambassador. When her uncle's term in office ended, he moved back home, to Somali but Waris remained in the city and held a job at a local McDonald's and while working, she enrolled in evening classes to learn English.

 Waris as luck may have it, was discovered and scouted by photographer Terence Donovan, who helped secure for her the cover of the 1987 Pirelli Calender. That gave her modelling career a lift off, and she started appearing in advertisements for top designers as Chanel, Levi's, L'Oreal and Revlon.

In 1987, Waris played a minor role in the James Bond movie, The Living Daylights. She also appeared on the runways of London, Milan, Paris and New York City, and in fashion magazines such as Elle, Glamour and Vogue. This was followed in 1995 by a BBC documentary entitled A Nomad in New York about her modelling career.

In 1997, at the height of her modelling career, in an interview with Laura Ziv, of the women's magazine Marie Claire, Waris spoke for the first time about the female genital mutilation (FGM) that she undergone as a child, at the age of five along with her two sisters. That same year, Warris became a UN ambassador for the abolition of FGM. She later paid her mother a visit in her native Somalia.

In 1998, Waris authored her first book, Desert Flower, an autobiography that went on to become an international bestseller. She later released other successful books including Desert Dawn, Letter To My Mother, and Desert Children, the latter of which was launched against FGM.

In 2009, a feature-length film based on Waris's book Desert Flower was released, with the Ethiopian supermodel Liya Kabede playing her. The movie has so far been released in 20 countries including France, Spain, Israel, Greece, Poland and Brazil. In January 2010, it won the Bavarian Film Awards in Munich in the "Best Movie" category. It was also nominated for a Film Award in Gold in the "Outstanding Feature Film" category at the German Film Awards, and won the Audience Award in the Audience Award in the "Best European Film" category at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

In 2010, Waris was appointed Peace Ambassador for the Year of Peace and Security by the African Union.

Her Humanitarian work, awards and honours:

In 1997, Waris abandoned her modelling career to focus on her work against FGM. That same year, she was appointed the UN Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. In 2002, she founded the Desert Flower Foundation in Vienna, Austria, an organization aimed at raising awareness regarding the dangers surrounding FGM. Waris followed that in January 2009 with the establishment of the PPR Foundation, for Women's Dignity and Rights, an organization she founded along with French tycoon Francois-Henri Pinault (CEO of PPR) and his wife, Hollywood actress Salma Hayek. Waris has also started the Desert Dawn Foundation, which raises money for schools and clinics in her native Somalia, and supports the Zeitz Foundation, an organization focussed on sustainable development and conservation. She recently opened a medical centre in Berlin that offers reconstructive surgery for FGM.

Her Awards includes, Woman of the Year Award (2000) by Glamour magazine. Corine Award (2002) of the umbrella association of the German bookselling trade. Women's World Award (2004) from former President of the USSR, Miikhail Gorbachev. Bishop Oscar Romero Award (2005) by the Catholic Church. Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (2007) from former President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. Prix des Generations (2007) by the World Demographic Association. Martin Buber Gold Medal from the Euriade Foundation (2008), founded by Wermer Janssen in 1981. Gold medal of the President of the Republic of Italy (2010) for her achievements as a human rights activist.

Culled from Wikipedia.

LESSON: Truly sky is no limit for him who has set out to live for others.

THE WOMAN ANGELIQUE KIDJO: AFRICA'S SWEETHEART

photocredit: twitter.com

Angelique Kidjo is Africa's Two-time Grammy Awards Vocalist, Long-time UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, founder Batonga Foundation, and mother of one. She was born on July 14, 1960 in Ouidah in Cotonou, Benin, in West Africa, of Beninese Father and Yoruba, Nigerian Mother. She studied music at CIM, a reputable jazz music school in France  where she met and married her French husband, Jean Hebrail a French musician and Producer in 1987. They had a daughter together. Their daughter Naima was born in 1993.

Kidjo came from a family of musicians, her mother was a performer in a dance and theatre ensemble and her father was a banjo player. Her music background influenced her love for the stage and performing. Kidjo left Benin in the early 1980s following the instability of the country's political climate which could not allow her music career thrive. She moved to Paris where she lived for a time before moving to New York where she now lives with her husband and their only daughter.

Kidjo started out as a solo singer but could not made much success, during this time, when she felt that she could not make it in the music world, she enrolled in school to study Law, but luck shined on her career in the mid-eighties, when she joined the European jazz-funk-African fusion band Pili with Pili leading the band. After touring extensively with the group for several years, she tried on solo career again and this time, it became a success, and eventually led her to international fame.

Her music style is rooted in Benin, both traditionally and contemporary but it is her love for other genres of music that have led her to international fame. She sings in four languages and has worked with many of world's finest musicians including Joss Stone, Peter Gabriel and Ziggy Marley. Her use of jazz and pop influences in her music have made her accessible to people from all over the globe.

In 2002, UNICEF appointed Angelique Kidjo as their Goodwill Ambassador, and used her voice and influence to reach people worldwide to discuss some of the major issues affecting the people of Africa, like HIV/AIDA, poverty, hunger and conflict and war in places such as Darfur.

She also set up her own Foundation, Batonga Foundation, which mission is to provide fund and support for the education of young girls in Africa.

She is also a critic of Western depictions of Africa, who paints Africa, a continent steeped in violence, victimhood and corruption. She says, "A success story in Africa doesn't interest any media. But they are so eager and hungry for horrible stories from Africa. According to her, it looks like the West is the hyena, feeding on the misery of the African people. And they should be ashamed doing this." -aljazeera.com

From a small country of Benin, to a World recognised Personality, our very own Angelique, a woman that saw herself through school, working various day jobs.

Kidjo's Humanitarian works have garnered her so much accolades, some being, Keep a Child Alive's Award for outstanding Humanitarian Work, shared with Oprah Winfrey, in New York, 2012. Crystal Awards, 2015, for not only being world famous artiste but also her dedication to humanitarian works. This she received alongside two other exceptional Artistes, Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and Italian Opera Singer, Andrea Bocelli.

Kidjo as described by Aljazeera is a symbol of Africa's creativity, energy, and beauty, with unique sense of music, a blend of West Africa's heritage, combined with funk, jazz and Latin music. Her music has also won many awards, two of which are Grammy Awards for 2008 with her hit song 'Djin Djin' and 2015 with 'Eve', to mention but these few. Her achievements are too numerous to mention here.

"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." - Albert Einstein.

LESSON: It is not enough to be famous, or to be rich, if the fame or the wealth cannot be employed for the betterment of lives and for good of the society. When you are blessed, be a blessing, it might just be the reason you are blessed.  

FROM A TINY SHOP TO BUILDING A GLOBAL CLOTHING EMPIRE: ADENIKE OGUNLESI

photo credit: Bellanaija.com


Life is an endless possibilities. There's just enough for anyone to do. There are always things to do, more to discover, and dreams to build. Whatever you decide to do, there's always a way for it, if you are determined and if you are perseverance.

Most great things in life, are birthed out of necessity, so, it's no wonder that Ruff 'n' Tumble came out of Adenike's need to provide good and affordable clothes to her children. Who then  is Adenike Ogunlesi?


Adenike Ogunlesi is an inspiring Nigerian entrepreneur, a mother of three and founder of Ruff 'n' Tumble, Nigeria's largest children's clothing line, that caters for boys and girls between the zero to sixteen-years of age, one of Africa's best with over 60 employees along with many distribution outlets in different parts of Nigeria and in some West African region. She is a mentor to Junior Achievement of Ngeria and Fate Foundation.

Adenike opted out of school in her second year as a Law student at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. She was 19 then. She went back home, but was bored at home and was unsure of what to do, she decided to join her mother in her tailoring business, when her mother asked her to come and work for her instead of being idle at home which she, her mother hates. Her mother's business was making tie and die and sewing them into modern styles. Joining her mother, made life exciting again for young Adenike. They started working together in her mother's tiny shop with her and her mother, the only employees, until 1996, when she started her own business.

"I started my own business in 1996, I had three small children and my mother's clientele was very demanding. I took a break to be with the youngest until she was three. Then I got restless. I have a lot of energy and it has to go somewhere. I wasn't finding the kind of clothes I wanted for the kids, the kids ran out of pyjamas, so I made some pyjamas for them and when the playgroup met, I took them along to show. I had orders right away. I started travelling with a suitcase full of samples, selling from the booth of my car. I added shirts and shorts and skirts and expanded the line fast. I went to a bazaar and sold out right away. That was good market research. I started in on the bazaar trail, showing up at every one with my clothes, a cooler full of drinks, and the three kids. I made money and put it back into the business. I took photos of the kids wearing my clothes and put them on billboards They love it. It fills them with confidence." She tells peacexpeace.org

Adenike succeeded against all odds, no degree, no money to hire professionals, plus the stress of convincing people to believe in her dream, and she also has to take of her family. Today, she stands tall in the lists of African women entrepreneur. One thing we learn from Adenike, is her ability to use resources available to her to build a brand, from selling her clothes from the back of her car, to using her kids as models for her designs when others were using cut out photos from foreign magazines, to maintaining on focusing on home market.

 According to her, if 40 percent of thee 120 million people in Nigeria are children, I have the potential of a huge market here, with this mindset, she maintained her export only Nigeria and along West African Coast.

LESSON: No condition is enough reason for you to quit.

CHANGING LIVES WITH 40/40 SMILES: ESTHER KALENZI

"BE THE CHANGE THAT YOU WANT SEE IN THE WORLD," -MAHATMA GANDHI

Esther Kalenzi is a young, unique and passionate African woman, last born of three children of her parents, a 2010 graduate of Mass Communication from Uganda Christian University (UCU). she did her O-Level education at Nabisunsa girls' school and finished in 2004, from there, she went to Aga Khan High School where she obtained her A-level in History, Economics, Geography and French in 2006.

Kalenzi is founder of 40 Days Over 40 Smiles Foundation, a youth-led charity organization created to improve access to education for orphans and children from poor families. At 26, Kalenzi is already a global figure, her desire to bring a change, has turned her from girl next-door to woman of grace.

Through her Foundation, Kalenzi has helped over 700 vulnerable children and still counting. According to her, it all started just from a thought to use 40 days lent period to save money and touch 40 lives at the end of the lent period, hence the name 40-40.

Though her initial target was to bring smiles on the lives of 40 people, today, 700 and more, have so far received those smiles. According to Kalenzi, 40-40 in its two years of existence has achieved much, it has built and completed a dormitory for Happy Times junior school in luwero that has a carrying capacity of 210 pupils. It has attracted support of companies as well as that of well-meaning individuals. It has also successfully done fund-raising events the first being 'Croak and Rhyme' meet which was held in July 2012 at Sheraton Hotel, the event, raised about Shs 5m. Kalenzi channelled the money to the dormitory she built for the Happy Times junior school.

 Kalenzi, in one her interviews, when asked what motivated her to build the dormitory, said that she was moved by the condition she saw of the school's dormitory, that babies, infants and adolescents were sharing a small space on the dormitory floor and the school needed about Shs 28m to build a new dormitory, even though she didn't have money to help, she still decided to do something, with the help of volunteers, she organized her first fund-raising event, though they realized the Shs 5m, it still wasn't enough, and still touched by their condition, Kalenzi took to online, and started an online campaign she termed, 'Buy a Brick', within eight days, she realised another Shs 10m, with that money, she began work at the building and ended up giving them 210 bed capacity dormitory.

So far, the Foundation has successfully done about five fund raising basketball events she termed 'Hoops for grace' in which players contribute Shss 10,000 and fans 3,000, the proceeds she intends using to create a play area for the children at Akiba Bless a Child Foundation, a home for children undergoing cancer treatment and still counting. There is just so much one can achieve from a simple idea. And a heart full of passion is unstoppable.

For every good work in life, there are always challenges, Kalenzi faced her own challenges, from lack of fund, to back-bitters, to distorters  but nothing of them discouraged her nor cause her to lower her integrity.

How did the journey start for her, the journey started by her opening  a Facebook account for 40-40 and began to tag and invite her friends, they in turn will invite their friends and so on, according to her, nothing came out at first but favour turned on her when she ran into her High school mate who gave her a donation of Shs 500,000, and in just one week, after that, she and her supportive friends, raised about Shs 1.3m. They then used the money to buy food and clothes for 150 orphans and vulnerable children in two orphanages, God's Grace in Kyebando and Make the Children smile in Nateete. The rest they say is history.

"Find the seed at the bottom of your heart and bring forth a flower."- Shigenori Kameoka

LESSON: A hand that gives, never lacks. A soul that loves, never age. Nothing is as rewarding as a life lived for others. There is always enough things to do to impact lives.

FROM NOMADIC PASTORAL BACKGROUND, TO FIRST AFRICAN NEW YORK CITY MARATHON CHAMPION, TO GLOBAL SPOKESPERSON FOR PEACE, TEGLA LOROUPE: A STORY OF COURAGE

"Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength."- Chris Bradford.

This quote came to my mind when I picked up pen to write about Tegla, a resilience tigress, a powerhouse in the world of Marathon, I mean she would've given up,  it was truly a choice for her then, but not Tegla, she refused to take the short way out, she persisted, today, she is one woman to reckon with. So who is Tegla Loroupe and what put her in the line of our top inspirational women?

 Tegla Loroupe is a Kenyan long-distance track and road runner. Born May 9, 1973, in Kutomwony, West Pokot District of Kenya, a marginalised nomadic poor community, situated in the Rift Valley, north of Nairobi. Tegla spent her childhood working fields, tending cattle and looking after her 24 younger siblings. At age seven she started going to school, her school was about 10 kilometres away from home so she would run to and from school every morning, this she did barefooted, young Loroupe did not know that she was building a career until she took part in their intra-school race competition.

The school early races were normally held over a distance of 800 to 1500 metres and students from each school class would come out and compete among themselves on barefoot. Tegla took part and won. It was there that Tegla's talent for running was first spotted. She was good. With this, she discovered that she can build a career as a runner, but coming from a society where women duties are looking after younger ones and keeping home, she received no support from anyone aside her mother and older sister, her father's view was that running is not ladylike. Loroupe was torned apart, by this time she was tired of men, and even considered becoming a nun but she was able to overcome the temptation of quitting and persisted.

When Loroupe wanted to run at National level, she was considered too frail by Kenyan athletics federation, though acknowledged her frail nature but it too not deter her. However, after winning a prestigious cross country race in 1988, the athletics federation changed their view about her and she was nominated to run for the junior world championships, at first attempt in 1989, she finished 28th, then in 1990, she competed again and, she came 16th.

In 1994, Tegla ran her first New York Marathon and won making her the first African woman to win the New York Marathon. This became a major breakthrough for Tegla, which saw her become an important sporting role model. She later went to win again the New York Marathon in 1995 and finished 3rd in 1998.

Then between 1997 and 1999, and three times in a row, Tegla won World Half-Marathon. Same period, she won Rotterdam Marathon also three times in a row, 1997, 98 and 99. She won Berlin Marathon in 1999 and finished second in 2011, from this point, she has become unstoppable, and went ahead to win different Marathon championships, setting records.

GIVING BACK TO THE SOCIETY

In 2003, Tegla established Tegla Loroupe Foundation, which mission is, "to improve peace building, livelihoods and resilience of poor people affected by and vulnerable to conflicts and civil strife in the world."

Through her Foundation, she created an annual series of 'Peace Marathon,' 'Peace through Sports' where she would invite Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ambassadors, and government officials to run with warriors and nomadic groups in her native Kenya, in Uganda and in Sudan, to bring peace to an area plagued by raiding warriors from battling tribes.

In 2010, the Kenyan Government lauded her achievements as hundreds of warriors had laid down their weapons.

According to her, because she was always called upon by her people whenever there was crisis and they are looking for assistance, they would call on her and she though in Europe, would come down to offer assistance, using her influence. This made her realize that she has something special in her that she can offer her community that they want to get from her, so she came home and indulge the Government, to work with her.

Tegla believes that people don't just fight because they don't like each other, to her, it's stereotype; people fight because they want to be heard, they want Government or anybody to listen to them; people fight because they cannot access education, and so have nothing of use to channel their energy and they have to survive. She believes that if they can get education, they will have a choice to a better life.

So to foster education in her native land, Tegla established a school(Tegla Loroupe Peace Academy) and orphanage for children from the region in Kapenguria, in north-west Kenya.

In February 2007, Tegla was named Oxfam Ambassador of sports and peace to Dafur, just months after she travelled with George Clooney, Joey Cheek, and Don Cheadle to Beijing, Cairo, and New York City on a diplomatic mission to bring an end to violence in Darfur. Loroupe also joined 'Champions for Peace' club. The club was created by Monaco based international organisation 'Peace and Sport.' It consist of 54 elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport.

Her humanitarian work has gained her many honours and accolades, like in 2007 also, she won the 'Community Hero' in the category of 2007, Kenyan Sports Personality of the year awards. In 2011, the International Olympic Committee(IOC), honoured her with Women and Sports award in recognition of her humanitarian works across Africa, e.t.c.

All these are as a result of courage, determination and persistence. From a village runner and a nobody to a global spokesperson for peace and a renowned Marathon Champion

When asked if being a top athlete account for her success, she has this to say, "It is more than success in competing. Many people can win races. It is drawing on the character developed by competing in sport---persistence through failure, overcoming pain, taking the long view, powerful hope, independence, being truthful with yourself--those character traits developed through sport are what helped me in my work for peace." What more can I say, she has said it all.

LESSON: Persistent, Courage and Determination are key ingredients to success. There is honour, dignity and self-satisfaction in giving back to the society, and no matter the field you are in, there's always something in it that you can use to impact lives, and always return to your root.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"There's always something to suggest that you'll never be who you wanted to be. Your choice is to take it or keep on moving." - Phylicia Rashad.

ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF: WHAT TO LEARN FROM HER

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf maybe known to all as the World's first elected black female president and Africa's first elected female president, or as 2011 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for her non-violent struggle for gender equality, and women's rights to full participation in peace-building work, but there is something about this woman that always blows my mind away, 'her integrity,' which forms the basis of this write up.

Sirleaf was born in october 29, 1938, in Monrovia, to Jahmale Carney Johnson family, a son of a minor Gola Chief, she attended high school at the college of West Africa in Monrovia, at 17, she got married to James Sirleaf, who travelled with her to the United States in 1961 to further her studies, there she gained an associate degree in accounting, in Madison, Wisconsin, and Master of Public Administration from Harvard's John F. Kennedy school of Government where she studied Economics and Public policy from 1969 to 1971. In 1972, she returned to her native home Liberia to serve as the Assistant Minister of Finance under William Tolbert government, and later became Minister of Finance from 1979 to 1980. Before Sirleaf became a President, she worked in various organizations, for example, she served as a President of the Liberian Bank in 1980 though fled the country in November same year after publicly criticizing Doe and his government, she first moved to Washington DC to work as a Senior Loan Officer, before moving to Kenya in 1981 where she served as Vice President of Citibank's Africa regional office in Nairobi, she resigned from citibank in 1985 and moved to Equator bank to serve as its Vice President, from there in 1992, she joined United Nations Development Programme, working as Assistant Administrator and Assistant Secretary General of United Nations Regional Bureau of Africa.

 In 1997, she resigned her post and returned to Liberia to contest for the seat of President in that year's election, though she came second after Charles Taylor, she later re-contested in 2005, today, after successfully winning the 2005 and 2011 presidential elections respectively, Sirleaf became the first female elected Head of State in Africa and still is, Africa's first and only elected female president. Sirleaf has won for herself numerous prized awards for her commitments to hard-work, honesty and integrity, and for her zeal in promoting of peace in Africa, but one aspect of Sirleaf's life that is mostly overlooked when analysing her probably because of her numerous achievements that one cannot compress into a page, or in a short article, was her refusal to accept a Senate seat she had already won under Montserrado County, same election that saw Doe and the National Democratic Party win the presidency and large majorities in both houses, simply because the election was generally criticised as not free and fair, (I believe this should be promoted and talked about all the time, because it's a standard worthy of emulation), instead, she protested against the election, calling it a fraud, even when imprisoned by Doe's forces, she still refused to accept the seat.

In 1989, at the beginning of the First Liberian Civil War, Sirleaf supported Charles Taylor to take up power from Samuel Doe, but when Taylor became tyrannical, Sirleaf opposed his government, criticising him for the way he handles the war and the way he treats rival opposition leaders like Jackson Doe, this can only be said of a person with integrity. As Thomas S. Monson may put it, ...the surest test of an individual's integrity is his refusal to do or say anything that would damage his self-respect. Sirleaf refused to diminish her self-worth for power, even in the face of danger, today as a proud mother of four boys and grandmother of eleven, and as a president, she is enjoying the fruit of her steadfastness in being a woman of integrity and a promoter of good of the society. Ellen stands against government corruption and believes in reformation of her people, she never for once abandoned her people nor go against her belief, that's why she is our number one woman.

Her quote: "All girls know that they can be anything now. That transformation is to me one of the most satisfying things."

Lesson: Integrity pays. What you give in life, you get back. The most satisfying thing is doing that which benefits others and promotes lives.        

WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU ARE NAKED?

Most at times, what challenges our belief about ourselves is what we hear. What we hear can either make us or destroy us depending on how we handle it, i often tell people that the best way to live a peaceful life is to mind what you give ear to, being constantly judged is a way of life in the world we are living in now, but our ability to live above such judgements is what makes us overcomers, do not be deceived, some of these criticisms and judgements do not come off like in ugly words, it maybe something that is already generally accepted as a norm but is indirectly killing souls, for example, world definition of beauty, anybody less of that standard already feels less beautiful, some say what makes a man is the money in his pocket, so men without money feel less of a man and so on, when we listen to these things, we make mistake, that is why i believe that what we feel about ourselves determines how far we go in life.

In the book of Genesis chapter 3:11, God said to Adam, "who told you that you are naked." meaning what informed you, how did you know you are naked, who have you listened to that you are now feeling ashamed and less of yourself? He was asking Adam because before then Adam didn't know that he was naked, and for him to have just suddenly realised that he was naked means that he had obviously been listening to something outside of him that was informing him.

When growing up, I know of a girl her mother constantly tells that she was prettier than every other girl our mate, even though it was not the case, but this girl because of this belief, walks and carries herself like a princess, her beautiful smiles which she exuded unsparingly, often drew people to her and made her the most liked person by all, then one day at school, she got into a fight with her classs mate who told her she's nothing but ugly and ugly also were those her teeth she opens all the time thinking them to be beautiful, but were the worst of her features, in that moment this girl's face dropped, all self worth disappeared, she didn't understand why she was called ugly, when her mother always tells her that she was prettier than all, and that her smile can wake even a sleeping dog, oh she was such an adorable soul, and truly loved but since that fight, her demeanour changed, she stopped feeling beautiful inside, her princess walk disappeared, even her attitude to people around changed and once her adorable mother became an enemy, she felt lied to, she was just unprepared to tackle such criticism, when her mother noticed her changed attitude, she asked her to tell mummy what was disturbing her, she kept quiet, but after much persuasion from her mum, she said to her mother with tears in her eyes, 'but mummy, my teeth are ugly, I'm ugly' and her mother asked her, 'my princess, who told you that you are ugly?' in other words, what have you been listening to? For this little girl, just one ugly encounter and her self worth was destroyed.

Does this girl's story reminds you anything of you, how often do you judge yourself base on what people say about you, do you feel less of yourself anytime you hear something ugly about you, or see some ads on television and magazine, is the world's standard of beauty your yard stick to measuring yourself?

Lesson, how you feel about yourself is the first step to achieving success, it is the centre of your being, no matter how you are created, there's something in you that makes you unique, the power to succeed is from within, how you hold certain thoughts captive is key to inner strength, learn to love who you are always irrespective of what people say about you. CaroltheCoach in her word states, "It is ok to feel the feeling but not to internalize the message that is implied. Don't give anyone the power to make you feel 'less than'." In other words, it is normal for you to react in some way to negative talks about you but the problem is allowing the feeling to be permanent in you to the extent that it damages your identity.They have said what they said but you have the power to determine how what they said will affect you. The key is loving who you are.