Lola loved the group diversity and was coached to deal breaking goals

Arc. Lola Ibrahim mnia, m’arcon is a real estate development expert and a multiple award-winning advocate for gender equality and women’s human rights. The diverse group of people is something she really appreciated in GLOW4equalitys group coaching program. During the program she was coached to set goals leading to "deal breakers" for herself personally and for her organization.

Lola is the President of Wo-Men Against Violence and Exploitation (WAVE) Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in Nigeria 2016.  The organization has Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of The United Nations . Lola started the campaign StopTheCutTM, to build strategic partnerships to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), where she managed and developed prevention programming and addressed barriers to care and support for FGM survivors and girls at risk.

- Being part of GLOW4equlity coaching program was intense, very engaging and brought out a part of me that I didn’t know about, Lola describes. I had to learn how to be patient, learn how to listen to other people. It was impactful. It made me to appreciate other people’s point of view and realize – it is not only what I want for the organization, it is also about what is best for the organization.

 - One of the biggest difference the program made for me in my work for gender equality is identifying clear goals, Lola describes. Defining a vision and a way to get there. Now we have a clear vision of what we want and how to reach that goal. The coaching definitely helped me to define that properly.

- The coaching helped me to reassess and focus more on me as a person, and I was able to reorganize the management structure of the organization to function efficiently with or without me, says Lola. Before, I tended to carry everything myself on my own head and on my own shoulders, I was the accountant, the president, the program officer, I did basically everything. But the coaching program made me realize that I didn’t have to do that. What I needed to do was to find the right team to work with and that helped me have a flexible schedule and time for myself and my family. That was a big deal breaker for me.

The women GLOW4equality coach are all dedicated to different gender equality issues and groups are themed and align under UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 5, Gender equality. The coaching group Lola attended, with women representing Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Canada, India and Sweden, joined around the theme “Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls”, SDG target 5:2.  

Coach Pia Moberg led the process throughout the six-month structured program, coaching the women and leading the group. In the beginning of the coaching program each woman is coached to set a long-term goal, within about 2-5 years as well as a short term "process goal" to reach by the end of the coaching program.

- Different people bring different ideas, when you have people from diverse backgrounds, different ages, different cultures you have a more enriching experience. That is something I loved about the group. I realize that overall, that our needs are basically the same. Women often want to nurture, nurture their family, their community and take care of people, and often forget to take care of themselves. Having that diverse group of people made me realize what I want out of life is simply the same as a woman from say Sweden. She wants people to be happy and that for me is really important. For example, Cecilia, who runs an NGO in Sweden and they take care of abused women and that is similar to what I do in Nigeria too, I want to take care of women that have been through FGM, and girls who are at risk of being cut, so the needs might be different but the overall work we do is basically the same and that is a very good thing.

- Joining GLOW4equality’s coaching program was a wonderful experience for me, I would advise women to, please go for it! You will enjoy it, it will help you, personally, professionally, in your career, with your family, with what you do, wherever you are in that point in time. It’s for growth!

Read about the WAVE Foundation, read other Impact Stories or look in to the details of GLOW4equalitys coaching program

 

Leave a Comment