Inside the life of an SDG Advocate and NGO project lead
Today we shine the spotlight on Tolulope Gbenro, a graduate of Industrial Physics from Covenant University, an SDG advocate, and the project lead for the Space for Her fellowship, a program focused on increasing female participation in Nigerian politics.
Tolu has years of experience in the world of social impact and sustainable development ranging from volunteering as a student for global nonprofits such as Enactus, and Hult Prize, to working with local NGOs, and impact-driven initiatives that have drawn local and international recognition.
Through these experiences, she has been able to lend her voice to advocate for various causes such as female inclusion in Nigerian politics, intergenerational solidarity for a better world, access to education for female children in all parts of Nigeria, and many more. She has also built a large network of professionals making an impact across different industries in Nigeria, Africa, and the world at large.
Tolu graduated from the University a year ago, and since then, she has spoken on radio shows, global webinars, and physical workshops, about actions that young people are taking to make the world sustainable. Her current project — The space for her fellowship is the flagship program of the NGO she works for — The Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative (BBYDI), a non-profit focused on promoting civic engagement, political participation, and good governance. Through the first edition of the program in 2022, Tolu and her team were able to teach and train 20 female political aspirants on Nigerian legislation and conduct political awareness campaigns. The program was a success as 500 students were directly impacted via their awareness campaigns and two of the aspirants have been appointed as the representatives of their constituencies in the 2023 House of assembly elections in Kwara State.
Entering Uni, Tolu was quite conflicted about the school she was in, mainly because she had plans to school outside the country. A story a lot of students in Nigerian universities can relate to. Due to her disappointment and initial hatred towards her school, she planned to fail school.
Getting some of the worst grades she had ever gotten in her life, and her plan was on the way to completion, then she realized that failing out of school was really not her best chance of getting the life she wanted.
Luckily for her, while she was still trying to get kicked out of school for bad grades, she met a group of students running projects centered around sustainable development goals. That group was the Enactus Covenant University team — Enactus is a non-profit student experiential learning platform that trains students to solve problems in their community through entrepreneurial action — She decided to join them as she had time to kill on her journey to leaving school much earlier than usual.
While on the team, she went into underdeveloped communities in Ota Ogun state. Communities struggled with bad or no waste management systems and scarce electricity supply, so the residents had little to no means of affordable food preservation. She and her newly found friends worked for months during their summer break building solutions to the problems in these communities and it was in the midst of this experience that she finally found a connection with her environment. A connection strong enough to motivate her to join several other nonprofits and initiatives while on campus such as Hult Prize Covenant University where she served as the campus director in charge of organizing a social entrepreneurship competition for students to pitch sustainable businesses.
After graduating from the University, she wanted to pursue a graduate degree right away but decided to participate in NYSC first. Making this decision, and being deployed to Kwara state, where she met and applied to volunteer with the Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative (BBYDI) team. In one year, she has been able to advocate for a number of causes and drive progress in her newly found community.
Tolu also works as a consulting intern at JET ESCP, a boutique consulting association that offers consulting services to a large panel of clients including, start-ups, SMEs, family businesses, and large corporations. There she puts her critical thinking and problem-solving skills to work in supporting clients by combining practical expertise with academic knowledge to add value to their businesses.
