Nigerian women leading the way for women's empowerment!

jadefrank

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• Nigeria meet-up

Dear Nigerian Sisters,

I didn't know a lot about Nigeria before I joined PulseWire. Media had skewed my vision of this country with stories of violence, oil wars, and Internet scams.

But all that changed when I began meeting women from Nigeria on PulseWire - women with powerful stories to tell, women with beautiful poetry to share, women eager to speak to the world, to connect with other grassroots leaders worldwide and women who were poised and ready to make great change in their country, in Africa and worldwide.

Now, when I think of Nigeria, I think of beautiful, powerful, soulful, generous women. In January, I was fortunate to connect in person with two of my new Nigerian sisters from PulseWire. I will never forget meeting Busayo for the first time - when her giant smile and strong arms embraced me, her warm hands grabbed hold of my face in disbelief that we were together in the flesh after meeting a year ago in cyberspace!

And then I met Fatima, who stood tall and fashionable in front of me for the first time. A woman who is more academically accomplished that anyone I know, and whose smile equaled Busayo's in size and warmth. Fatima who has welcomed every single new member to PulseWire for the past two years!

When Fatima approached me a month ago, with the idea to bring Nigerian women from PulseWire together in person, I was overjoyed at this visual image. The World Pulse team has been wanting to initiate meet-ups in cities around the world, so that connections that begin in the PulseWire community can expand into localized community collaboration, close friendships and united actions. So that discussions can jump off the page and come to life, and women can share their experiences, ideas, and dreams in person!

And I couldn't think of a better place to hold the first PulseWire Meet-up, than Lagos, Nigeria! I just wish I could be there too ;). As Fatima mentioned, the date has been set for October 30, 2010. Please complete the survey, so that we can get a sense of how many people will be attending and what size venue we need. A few women who live outside Lagos indicated concern for finding accommodation in the city, so if you can host a sister for the night, please let us know!

The first 10 PulseWire members to complete the survey will receive a copy of Earth, the most recent edition of World Pulse Magazine!

Find the survey here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEtwWkRMS2JicDl2ZVNKbTR...

In friendship, support and solidarity,
Jade