Yinka Olatubosun

The absence of a health plan for staff and given the rise of nursing mothers in her office, Yinka Olatubosun had a major concern about the safety of her colleagues at THISDAY situated on a high-risk neighbourhood (with a truck busy road leading to it) of Apapa, Lagos. , As such, she focused her leadership project on sensitising her colleagues on the need to develop a sense of security, while also calling on the management for a health care policy change. Yinka organised a seminar tagged, ‘Sisters Staying Safe’ on occupational health and safety for female journalists in her organisation. A few journalists from other sister organisation (Arise TV) were also present. Many of her female colleagues have made lifestyle changes following the seminar. Yinka is proud of the outcome of the project. She says, “Although we may not be able to change the health care policy in THISDAY at the moment, we have moved from general passiveness to collective affirmation of our humanity.”

“Art within the Prison Walls”, an unconventional story by Yinka, focuses on two women who championed art inside prison walls through a collaborative project in the Ikoyi prison, Lagos. These women alongside Yinka became the actors in a male dominated prison. They led a team of male artists to a 3-day workshop and exhibition which involved drawing, painting and exhibition, and had to endure the sexual harassment from inmates to do the work. Among the inmates who participated in the workshop, the thematic preoccupation of their paintings was centred on women – wives and mothers who have remained loyal and are still fighting hard to get them justice. The prison story itself had got the attention of Omooba Yemisi Shyllon Foundation which had donated art materials to the prison at Ikoyi. There is the possibility that the art in prison project will continue for a long time.