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| Shades of Us at the “Collectively Inspiring SBCC in Nigeria” Event Hosted by CCSI in Abuja. Image Credit: CCSI. |
When three of our abstracts were accepted for the 2026 International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit happening in Panama, I was excited. No, that doesn’t quite capture my feeling. I was over the moon with joy. I kid you not: I pranced a bit in my room because I felt super proud of myself, my team, and the work we do at Shades of Us.
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| Photo by Farah Nabil on Unsplash |
Abuja is flooding again. And, as expected, everybody has something to say about who is responsible.
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| Fighting for women’s rights is our feminist call. And sometimes, it takes a toll on our physical and mental health. |
There has been a lot of conversation recently about Trevor Noah and South Africa.
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| African Feminist Macroeconomic Academy: The Audacity to Disrupt |
By Ramatu Ada Ochekliye
When I opened my email on June 16, I did it with a blasé attitude because the last couple of months had been filled with way too many rejections, with the much-needed sprinkling of acceptance. I saw the email notification from the African Feminist Macroeconomic Academy (AFMA) and steeled myself for another rejection. If you have been in these shoes, you know it is that pesky thing we do so that we act like another rejection doesn’t faze us.
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| Image by The Cable Nigeria |
Nigeria has taken an important step in the way it responds to suicide and mental health crises.
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| Image by Shades of Us |
You know the feeling. You have been telling yourself for weeks that you should talk to someone. Life happens, or the thought of explaining your whole story to a stranger feels exhausting, or you simply do not know where to start. For a lot of people, that gap between knowing they need help and actually getting it is where things stall.
by Victor Jacob
There are some conversations many men learn to avoid long before they learn how to have them.
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| Photo by Erik Hathaway on Unsplash |
When a disaster happens — a flood in Bayelsa, a crisis in a city, or a serious problem inside an organization — our attention naturally goes to what we can see.
By Florence Shadrack | Victory Kashibu | Sanyaolu Oluwatamilore
There was something about the photographs that stayed with us.
Not because they were difficult to find: because they were easy to find.
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| Photo by Emmanuel Ikwuegbu on Unsplash |
Education opens doors to opportunity, but the pressure to perform is quietly wearing down the students walking through those doors.
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| Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash |
What if the greatest failure of research is not that it goes unpublished, but that it goes unused?
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| Photo by Ssenyondo Gabriel on Unsplash |
By 7:15 that morning, Daniel was already running late.
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| Shades of Us Interns at the National Policy Dialogue on Rights, Justice and Digital Safety Convened by TechHER |
By Ramatu Ada Ochekliye
Shades of Us attended the National Policy Dialogue on Rights, Justice and Digital Safety, hosted by TechHer with support from Luminate on July 30, 2026, in Abuja, Nigeria. The dialogue brought together government institutions, civil society organisations, human rights advocates, technology stakeholders and survivors to examine technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), launch new research and push for stronger policy, justice and accountability.
By Kashibu Victory
For decades, the story of African civil society was written in proposal templates and donor reports. Nonprofits did life-changing work—running schools, protecting rights, delivering healthcare, and preserving cultures—while operating on a simple assumption: if the mission was pure enough, the funding would follow. But that assumption is quietly crumbling. Across the continent, the funding ecosystem is undergoing a structural shift that no amount of optimism can ignore. Donor priorities are pivoting. Grant cycles are shrinking. International aid flows are tightening, and the old rhythms of annual applications and one-year renewals no longer guarantee survival.
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Image culled from ElectHER’s They Don’t Trust the Process. They’re Showing Up Anyway, which draws on responses from 805 women across Nigeria. |
There is something unsettling about asking people to keep believing in a process that has given them reasons to doubt it.
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| Photo by Jadon Johnson on Unsplash |
I had never wondered what happened to a project after it was graded.
by Victor Jacob
Every generation has had its own public square. For our parents and grandparents, it was the village square, the town hall, the classroom, the marketplace, or the community meeting where people gathered to exchange ideas, settle disagreements, and shape society — more of a physical square.
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| Image by Ramatu Ada Ochekliye for Shades of Us |
Tawiah's story below is a composite illustration, drawn from the common, well-documented experiences of rural girls across the region — not a single named individual.
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| Image by Shades of Us |
I once sat in a classroom that looked complete—walls painted, desks arranged, a teacher at the front. But something was missing. Not something visible, but something you could feel.
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| Image by Shades of Us |
On July 17, 2026, I sat in my room listening to people talk about how to change minds, and I heard something that made me pause: “As a writer, know what your why is.” Hearing this made me know that this is all I needed to hear and work with when writing stories or blogs.
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| Photo by A Chosen Soul on Unsplash |
By Florence Shedrack
On 15 July 2026, I had the opportunity to represent Shades of Us at the webinar titled Decolonizing Global Health: Practitioner Perceptions and Pathways for Practice, facilitated by Dr. Anthony Francis Mveyange, a development economist and Director of Programs for Synergy at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). The session challenged long-held assumptions about power, partnership, and knowledge production in global health. More importantly, it challenged me to rethink what equitable collaboration should truly look like.
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| Image by Shades of Us |
Not too long ago, civic participation was something we associated with public squares, community meetings, and peaceful protests. Today, those same conversations have found a new home online. Across Africa, digital platforms have become places where citizens organise relief efforts, expose injustice, demand accountability and amplify voices that might otherwise go unheard. A single post can mobilise communities. A video can spark national conversations. A hashtag can unite thousands in pursuit of justice.
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Participants Watching Our Short Film and Reflecting at the Jos Mental Health Summit |
By Atinuke Adeosun
“Trauma is the basis of all mental illness.”
