Professional Sister-ships

Over the past two weeks, we have been looking at biological sister-ships, and it’s interesting to know the impact those blogs have had on such sister-ships. I know that some ladies are either the only child of their parents, or have biological brothers and not sisters so they couldn’t fully relate to the earlier blogs. But hey! We gotchu. I’m very much aware of that fact, and we brought you something today you can fully relate to even if you have no biological sister. 

Professional sister-ships, yes! We believe every lady has to grow on a personal level and even so professionally. No one is an island, we rise and fall on the shoulders of other people. You want to become a great person, it’s doable, but you need others to make that a reality. So we are going to look at an intentional professional sister-ship that exists between two amazing ladies and how that has impacted their personal and professional growth. 

I have here with me Jennifer De-Graft Ninson (Founder and Executive Director, Organization For Inclusion and Empowerment – OFIE) and Yaa Wodenya (Founder of Boa Daakye Foundation). These are young women who are leading change and making impacts all over Ghana and beyond and it’s a great honour to have them in the house today. 

Personally, they both inspire me a lot and I learn from them as well. Their energy is on another level just that one of them cannot dance to save her life. Hahaha. We will find out who that is before the end of the blog.

BM: Ladies, you are all welcome to The Intentional Lady blog. We’re glad you could make time for this interview.

Both: It’s a pleasure to be here. We know this is going to be fun.

BM: I know too, and I can’t wait to hear your story. First of all, how did you guys meet?

Yaa: I attended a CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education)  program, I think at a beach hang out and I saw Jennifer there. She attended because she is also a CAMA (CAMFED Association) member. We communicated and exchanged contact. But before then I had seen her works on social media and I had heard a lot about her and her community engagements too. I also have an interest in such so I connected and yes, that’s how we met.

Jennifer: Oh really? I don’t quite remember that. Hahaha. Let me tell you my version of  “how we met”. Can I?

BM: Sure, go ahead. 

Jennifer: This is what I remember. I met Yaa on a CAMFED Media Advocates page. We had both been nominated for the Humanitarian Awards and I had posted my flyer on the platform to ask for votes. So I sent her a private message to ask her to either send me her flyer to post for her or she should post it on the page so that we both get the needed support. That was the start of a beautiful relationship.  😊

BM: Interesting, I like both stories, they sound cool. Jennifer, who is Yaa to you?

Jennifer: Yaa is like the little sister I always wished I had grown up with but didn’t.  All my sisters are way older than I am and I do not have a very tight relationship with them. I have a sister, a friend and an accountability partner in her. 

BM: Awwwn, so sweet. Yaa, would you like to add up on the relationship you two have?

Yaa: I would say we’re two CAMA sisters. I wouldn’t say friends, but sisters because the bond we share is very strong. I mean we share opportunities with each other, we talk about our projects and how to make it better and make more impacts, we attend events together, we hang out too, although not often but once a while we do. So it’s on these mutual grounds that we relate. 

BM: Talk of mutual grounds,  Jennifer, tell me some mutual interests you think you  two have?

Jennifer: What we share in common is our passion to grow as individuals in diverse ways and also make impact in ways we believe we can and we should. So it brings about discussing our individual challenges and finding ways to remedy them, sharing opportunities, cheering and showing up for each other on different occasions. 

BM: The passion to GROW. Now,  y’all should tell me three things about each other you admire.

Jennifer: I’ll go first. The things I admire about Yaa are: 

1. Her readiness to help in any way possible whenever I call on her. 
2. Her intelligence 
3. Her vision 

Yaa:  Jennifer has a heart of gold. She is very selfless in that she doesn’t think twice about sharing opportunities with me, I mean anytime she sees an opportunity, she shares it. She is also very supportive and caring. Aside from sharing project opportunities and strategies for implementation, she also shares messages on relationships with people, how to connect with people,  build and maintain a great network. 

BM: Mmmmmmm. This brings me to my next question. How has this sister-ship you ladies share impacted your lives?

Yaa: Our sister-ship has really impacted my life.  One of the instances I will never forget is when she helped me to become a Digital Opportunity Trust Fellow. She is an alumnus now and she shared the opportunity with me when applications for the next cohort was opened. She encouraged me to apply although I didn’t know whether I would be accepted.  I was selected,  got funding, mentorship support, met people and even had the opportunity to be a speaker for some of their sessions.  

And the recent one is Empowered to Educate Fellowship. She was the same person who shared that opportunity with me and then I got selected and I will be starting the fellowship in September. So I will say this sister-ship has really impacted my life by connecting me to opportunities which I mostly get selected for, and I am personally benefiting from it as well as my Foundation. I’ve been able to meet new people and learn new things.

Jennifer: Yaa’s presence in my life and her ideas have shaped my approach to some of the projects I implement as we discuss a lot of the project ideas I have through the initiation stages to closure. Her public relations skills have been very advantageous to me personally and my organisation especially when it comes to leveraging social media for branding. She’s also on some occasions passed on some opportunities to me which have all contributed to my growth.

BM: Whoosh! I can see you ladies are not in each other’s lives for a joke. That’s commendable. 

Yaa, I would like to know some of the intentional steps you both take to sustain this sister-ship.

Yaa: Our sister ship, like any other, is not a perfect one. We do have issues. We have had moments where I had to apologise for offending her and she had to do the same for times she offended me. And mind you, we are not of the same age. Jennifer is older so I am always careful when engaging her because I don’t want to “disrespect” her if I should say. 

It is of essence that both parties are frank. Because if you value the essence of the relationship, you will realise that it is very needful to open up where necessary. Apologise when you are wrong and leave such moments behind because there is more to achieve together. I believe that these are some of the intentional steps we have both taken that have saved our relationship and brought us this far.

BM: Wow! Benefits over problems. That’s very profound. Dear sis, swallow your pride and ego,  apologise and save that relationship, if benefits outweigh the issues. I think we can end the interview now, right?

Jennifer: Hahaha. 

BM:  So I have a debate-like question for you ladies.  “Women are their own enemies”. Are you for or against the motion? Let’s go!

Both  ladies laugh while looking at each others’ face, not sure who is going first.

Jennifer: I went first the last time so Yaa, go for it.

Yaa: Sure, I don’t agree to that assertion. Yes we may have our differences as humans but that doesn’t warrant us being enemies. The CAMA network is a best picture for debunking this thought because I have received numerous support from some members of the network including connecting with Jennifer and I do not take that for granted. So I think it is subjective, probably depending on what one has experienced. 

BM: It’s clear she’s against the motion. Jennifer, what about you?

Jennifer: I also do not subscribe to that statement, as making enemies and encountering angels do not have the tag of a gender. Any gender could help or destroy you. Male or female, anyone could be threatened or feel excited about my growth. If I have a sister who shows up for me, I embrace her. If a brother supports me too, I welcome it. If on the other hand another sister is not enthused about my progress, I would take it as reality, same as if it was a male.

BM: I love both submissions. Very much on point. I am against the motion too. So our very last question and we are out of here. Let’s bully Yaa small, since she is the youngest here. Lolx Yaa, end with us on this. Would you encourage other ladies to have this kind of relationship you two have?

Yaa: Oh you guys hahaha. Absolutely, I would encourage ladies and other women to have this kind of sister-ship because it is great that we support each other. If you see an opportunity, share it. You know that some people will like to shelve good things and that is why I like Jennifer so much because she’s not one of them, she doesn’t care if the opportunity is big and she doesn’t qualify, she’ll still share it with me. She knows that if she doesn’t qualify, someone else does.

It‘s very good that every young woman has other young women around her who are very supportive like Jennifer. Someone you can share the activities of your projects with, talk about it, share ideas on how to develop it and you know make it better. Whether you are working on a project or not, I think every lady deserves this. We all need to grow.

BM: Every lady needs to grow and you have to be intentional about it. Fellow Intentional Ladies, it’s a  wrap for today. I appreciate you ladies for making time out to do this, I know every Intentional Lady is busy because they don’t leave things to chance. I don’t take this for granted.

Both: It’s a pleasure Barbs, we really had fun doing this.  

Skrrrrrrrr! Professional sister-ships are very necessary. I’m also a CAMA member and it is through this same network I met these amazing ladies.

Thank you lovely reader for reading till the end. You’re the real deal. Mention one person  you have a professional sister-ship with in the comments. Let them know you’re grateful for having them.

Until next time, PAY THE PRICE FOR A HEALTHY AND BENEFICIAL SISTER-SHIP. Support this initiative too, SHARE this blog with your network. I LOVE YOU.