Vlisco Honours Editor In Chief And Publisher Of tw Magazine, Adesuwa Onyenokwe.

 

In recognition of an outstanding performance and representation as the 2014 Vlisco Women’s month winner, foremost fashion brand Vlisco, manufacturers of the iconic Hollandais fabric, honoured Mrs. Adesuwa Onyenokwe at a private dinner for family and friends, on Friday May 1, at Bistro 7 in Lagos.

Under the coordination of Tobi Olanihun, CEO of Wow connect, the crowd of 30 men and women, came to celebrate this worthy Vlisco ambassador and to show how proud they were of the strides she has made in the business of empowering women; as observed by Adaeze Alilonu, the company’s marketing chief.

Though it was an evening to celebrate the achievements of AO, it was pertinent that we got familiar with the works being done by the 2015 nominees and this year’s winner.

One of the nominees, Tolu Sangosanya, works with children in the Dustbin estate taking care of their needs particularly educational, seeing that many of these children are in school but can neither write not read- a challenge that she faced until she was 10 years old. She chose this path of helping the kids after getting a prophesy that she was going to die and did not want to die without impacting the lives of others. Today, that prophesy has changed for good but she continues to dare.

The other nominee Itoro Eze-Anaba, deals with survivors of rape at the Mirabel centre which she runs Her stories gripped my heart with fear as I heard of fathers raping their daughters, uncles raping their nieces and paying the girls fathers off! A 3 year old contracting gonorrhea from her mother’s boyfriend, a serial rapist in GRA Ikeja, a 40days old baby raped by an uncle, a teacher inserting spoon into the vaginas of a female student, a 70 year old grandma raped by her son’s tenant and the list was endless.

It makes one wonder what the world is really turning into. The funding for that centre comes to an end in July and the centre may need to close down but if it does, who will give a voice to these individuals whose pride and dignity was forcefully taken away from them. Itoro calls on all to support the centre.

The 2015 Vlisco woman of the year, Dotun Akande, dared to dream after having to raise an autistic child. She runs an autistic centre and the smiles that she puts on the faces of the parents of those children who get a glimmer of hope when they see the support and improvement given to their children by Dotun. Autism is misconstrued and sufferers are highly victimised but Mrs. Akande has shown that an autistic child can become as amazing as any other. Her son who is autistic is a science guru scoring 7As in his WAEC . He is off to college in a few months.

After listening to this heart wrenching stories, I needed a break and Saco and his friend made us laugh and got us once again in the mood to network though not forgetting the need to join hands with these 3 women to provide solutions to the tantamount challenges in our society.

Whilst we ate and drank, the marketing manager of Vlisco, Adaeze Alison, presented a bouquet of fresh flowers to Mrs. Adesuwa Onyenokwe with a luxury edition of the Vlisco fabric which caught the envy of all as I heard a guest tackle Ada afterwards saying she needed one. She was also given a personal gift from the Vlisco representatives present as she gave her vote of thanks.

AO has been a mentor to the Vlisco ladies, a friend to all and a worthy ambassador of Vlisco. As she bows out, her good works continues as she extended a hand of friendship and partnership with Dotun Akande and the other nominees.

The entire tw family is proud of our own AO!