FOR GREENER PASTURES I MIGRATED WITH A SEVEN WEEK PREGNANCY, MY HUSBAND AND A DREAM, NURSE TOPE SHARES HER STORY FROM DIASPORA

 MY AGENCY TRANSFERRED AND SOLD MY CONTRACT TO THE STATE, INITIALLY I WAS NOT HAPPY AND WAS CONFUSED ABOUT RELOCATING TO ANOTHER STATE, BUT LITTLE DID I KNOW IT WAS A BLESSING IN DISGUISE

Tope oladimeji is a registered nurse in the state of Virginia and Nigeria, she obtained  an associate degree from the Lagos state teaching hospital school of nursing in Nigeria and a Bsc. in Nursing from  Grand Canyon University in America respectively. She is a wife, a mother and owns a budding yet successful scrub line business in America. Currently she is a Nurse unit manager in one of the state's psychiatry hospital in  Virginia and studying for a Master's degree in psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.

Nurse Tope shares her story on why and how she came to the United states of American with her husband and a seven-week-old pregnancy, she left Nigeria for greener pasture because even though she had a good job back home in Nigeria, she was not making enough money to cater for her needs and the money was never coming in when due and needed the most, also she needed to experience something different and better in her career. Before coming to America, she had tried migrating to other countries, like the United Kingdom, Canada and even Australia but all effort to move to those countries proved abortive, until she went through an agency " O' Grady Peyton international". The agency took charge of all the migration process from start to finish and guided her through  from the NCLEX examination which she traveled all the way to Philippine to write, to the interviews and Employment. Migrating to America was more than a dream come true and a goal for her, to her it was a ticket to attaining greener pastures both financially and professionally, as she always wanted more than working just to pay rent and she was also tired of the ill treatment of the nursing profession in Nigeria. 

I WAS DRESSED LIKE A HOMELESS PERSON TO BEG MONEY AT WALMART

 I WAS DRESSED LIKE A HOMELESS PERSON TO BEG MONEY AT WALMART, I WAS NOT ALLOWED TO GO TO SCHOOL OR TO PLAY BASKETBALL

Mercy Amechi is from Enugu state Nigeria, she was a college athlete and a chef, she currently owns her food business Chyfoodnetwork, (fedup.co/plug/cookwchy)  she moved to the United States of America seven years ago to study and also to play basketball; Mercy attended Monroe college in New York where she obtained an associate degree and then moved to Hampton University Virginia, where she also obtained a B.sc in Sport management and business. Growing up, she dreamt of living abroad but also thought that it was a fanciful hope which will never happen, but as God will have it, today she is living in America and living her dreams. 

Mercy shares her story about why and how she left Nigeria to pursue her dreams abroad, the challenges she encountered, what kept her going and how she overcame all obstacles to get to where she has always dreamt to be.  As a young girl growing up in Nigeria, she hatred going to school, the only thing she loves doing was sport and cooking and that was the only reason she went to school.

 She got a scholarship to come to the US to play basketball and also to go to school through the Ejike Ugboaja foundation, a charitable organization that provides educational opportunities for young Nigerians through sport. She got to know about the foundation through a friend on Facebook who happens to be one of the coaches that comes to the camp every year to select young athlete to travel to America for a camp where they could be discovered by schools. She was fortunate to be selected to attend the camp in Atlanta. During the camp, some coaches took interest in her but unfortunately, she did not receive I-20 to remain in the country to go to school and to play basketball, she returned back to Nigeria, but she never gave up, she kept sending series of emails to the organizer of the program until he got her a scholarship to come back to America. 

MERCY SHARES HER STORY FROM DIASPORA

 JOIN US ON THURSDAY AS MERCY SHARES HER AMAZING STORY FROM DIASPORA

OUR STORY FROM DIASPORA: SHARE YOUR STORY TO INSPIRE OTHERS

OUR STORY FROM DIASPORA: SHARE YOUR STORY TO INSPIRE OTHERS:

SHARE YOUR STORY TO INSPIRE OTHERS

 

NURSE TOPE SHARES HER STORY FROM DIASPORA

 ARE YOU A NURSE WHO ASPIRES TO PURSUE YOUR CAREER ABROAD, JOIN US ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 29 2020. AS NURSE TOPE SHARES HER STORY AS PSYCHIATRIC NURSE IN VIRGINIA USA. JOIN US TO KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO SUCCEED AS A NURSE ABROAD.

AWARD WINNING UK BASED JOURNALIST, POET AND GLOBAL ANALYST SHARES HIS STORY FROM DIASPORA

   I LEFT NIGERIA BECAUSE I WAS TIRED AND FRUSTRATED, MY PARENT WANTED ME TO DO MY MASTERS DEGREE IN NIGERIA BUT I DECLINED,TO HAVE MY WAY, I TOLD THEM THAT NOBODY CAN TEACH ME IN NIGERIA ANYMORE

Tunji Offeyi is an award winning  UK based Journalist, Poet and a global analyst, he was born in  Lagos state Nigeria, attended Lagos state University where he obtained a BA in Literature in English and in 2009 he moved to the United Kingdom for further study, where he also obtained a master’s degree in International Relations from Staffordshire University. Tunji began his career in journalism in 2003 through the week magazine (Now defunct) and rose to the rank of Special Correspondent (Lagos) , as an experienced Journalist he had the privilege to interview great personalities like Izi Codron the producer of the Hit movie Hotel Rwanda, Nigerian legendary flutist Tee Mac Iseli, Professor Liz Barnes-Vice Chancellor Staffordshire University, and several Nollywood Stars such as Segun Arinze, Stephanie Okereke-Linus, Richard Mofe Damijo (RMD) amongst other notable names in the Nigerian entertainment industry.

 He has written several poems and short stories notable among his story is the pleasures of the night, this story caught the attention of the government and influences their decision to take action against prostitution and other vices going on around the night clubs in Lagos. Tunji is also the author of the book Echoes from The Soul (A collection of poems) which was launched at The Albany Centre, London in 2009. He has received several awards for some of his write ups, his poem ‘Chapta two’ was recently published by the prestigious Cake magazine, a Poetry magazine based in the University of Lancaster, after being mocked by a poet in a reading club in London.  He is married to a Hungarian woman Kitti and they are blessed with a lovely son Noé , also known as Eniola. Tunji loves traveling with his family and they have been to 15 different countries of the world.

Tunji shares his story on how he moved from Nigeria to the United Kingdom and how transition was for him, he left Nigeria because he was tired of the country and frustrated about the situation of things in the country; his parent wanted him to do his master’s degree in Nigeria but he declined saying to them that he is too intelligent to be taught in Nigeria and those who can teach him are in the UK. of course, this was to provoke his family so he can have his way to leave the country. Like every other youth in Nigeria, he had tried all he could to succeed in his career but all to no avail, he was famous but has nothing to show for it, he got the opportunity to come to the United Kingdom, it wasn’t an easy journey for him starting out in the UK, as he came into the country with just twenty pounds which lasted for just one week after his arrival and his dream was almost fading out after one week in the UK. He got some support from the pastor of the church he attended when he first arrived until he was able to get a job. He was kicked out from where he was squatting with a family, he  moved in with some friends in a single room and continued to struggle to live his dream, he got a job with more hours and was able to rent his own apartment and life began to evolve from there for him, he met his wife they got married and moved to a bigger apartment he no longer lives in the hustle and bustle of London and now he is living his dream. He advised those who aspires to leave their country to pursue their dreams abroad to plan it right, get the right documents in place,  so they can have a peaceful  migration , because if they don’t get it right from the beginning, they might spend the better part of their life running from immigration and might even be deported after spending so many years without achieving nothing.

3RD RUNNER UP MISS UNIVERSE GHANA 2015 SHARES HER STORY FROM DIASPORA

I WAS BULLIED, CALLED A BOOTY SCRATCHER AND VERY NASTY NAMES, BEING CALLED AN AFRICAN WAS AN INSULT, I STRUGGLED WITH IT FOR A VERY LONG TIME AND I WAS NOT PROUD OF MY GHANAIAN /AFRICAN ROOTS. 

3RD RUNNER UP MISS UNIVERSE GHANA 2015,  SHARES HER STORY FROM DIASPORA

Marie Louise Ocran is a Ghanaian American, she is a model and was the third runner up Miss Universe Ghana 2015, she is also a food entrepreneur, a computer programmer and the founder of more to life international; a non-profit organization that provides mental health education to youths in Ghana,  her personal experience as a suicide attempt survivor inspired her to set up her organization. As a young girl she attempted suicide twice because she was constantly bullied and oppressed by her school mates and also, due to other life situation such as living in poverty which lead her to a state of despair that forced her to almost take her life. she started her organization, “More to Life International,” to raise awareness about the need for programs addressing mental health issues and wellbeing in African.

In 2016, she was recognized for her work by the International Association of Applied Psychology of United Nations as she was a keynote speaker for an SDG’s event. She has also worked with International Center for Research on Women.

Today, she is co-owner of MAMA, Tulsa’s first African & Caribbean, food business alongside being a full stack developer. She believes that being a full stack developer helps her bridge the gap between her passions.

On our story from diaspora she tells her story on how she moved from Ghana to American and how transition was for her.

Marie came To American at the age of seven, her father won the visa lottery and he filed for her and her siblings to join him. She had the opportunity to attend middle and high school in American, middle school was very tough for her as she had a difficult time adjusting to the system. She dealt with a lot of self-hate, she was bullied because of her accent and was called names like booty scratcher and other nasty names, being called an African was an insult, she was ashamed of her African/Ghanaian root for a very long time and she struggled with it, and so, she decided to work on her accent to change the way she speaks so that she can be accepted in the community, she bought some training tapes to learn how to speak like Americans without a trace of any accent, this went on for a very long time, it was recently that she came to full acceptance of who she is and where she is from and to begin to love her culture.

On why Africans look up to migration as an ultimate goal, she said it is because of how the media portrays African and the western world. African is being portrayed as  poverty stricken, while America is seen as as a land of gold with so many skyscrapers, because of this, even as a little girl in Ghana, migration was her first goal in life and  many  in African still wish that even if they could get to American airport and die before stepping their feet on the soil they have made it in life, to her migration is an ultimate goal to Africans because they feel that there is no opportunity for them in African or perhaps, they do not know how to take advantage of the little opportunities that are available. She advised young people who aspires to leave their country to pursue their dreams elsewhere to wait on any opportunity that is too good to be true, and to research on such opportunity before jumping into it and not to take any risk if they are not sure of what lies ahead of them.

 

OUR STORY FROM DIASPORA: JOIN US ON SATURDAY AUGUST 15TH 2020, AS MARIE LO...

OUR STORY FROM DIASPORA:  JOIN US ON SATURDAY AUGUST 15TH 2020, AS MARIE LO...:   JOIN US ON SATURDAY AUGUST 15TH  2020, AS MARIE LOUISE OCRAN TELLS  HER STORY FROM DIASPORA

ABOUT OUR GUEST

 TUNJI  TELLS HIS STORY FROM DIASPORA

  I am Tunji Offeyi-a UK based Journalist-Poet,born in the Coastal city of Lagos,Nigeria.I wrote the book Echoes From The Soul (A collection of poems) which was launched at The Albany Centre,London in 2009.My highest qualification is MA International Relations from Staffordshire University having initially bagged a BA(Literature in English) from Lagos State University.I also retrained in Journalism through a program I participated in at the University of Derby and Guardian UK.Prior to all this I practised for several years in Lagos Nigeria writing mainly for The Week magazine(Now defunct)and rose to the rank of Special Correspondent(Lagos).As an experienced Journalist I have had the privilege to interview great personalities like Izi Codronthe producer of the Hit movie Hotel Rwanda,Nigerian legendary flutist Tee Mac Iseli,Professor Liz Barnes-Vice Chancellor Staffordshire University,and several Nollywood Stars such as Segun Arinze,Stephanie Okereke-Linus,Richard Mofe Damijo(RMD) amongst other notable names in the NIgerian entertainment industry.Some of my career highlights was writing a story titled Pleasures of The Night which caused the government to take actions against prostitution and other vices going on around Lagos night clubs at the time.I have done Collaborations with Television for Enviroment(TVE)UK-which informed my story Filming Against Poverty.My poem titled Chapta Two was recently published by Cake Poetry of the University of Lancaster.My blog link is tunjiwites.wordpress.com. My personal life revolves around my Hungarian wife Kitti and our Son Noé also known as Eniola.We love travelling and have visited over 15 countries at the last count,when we are less busy we tend to our vegetable garden allotment near our home in Stoke-on-Trent.