The Quiet

Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash

By Florence Shadrack 

When Jessica got married to Michael, everyone in the neighbourhood said she was lucky.

Lessons on Money and Mission

Shades of Us Team in Abuja, Nigeria

By Sanyaolu Oluwatamilore Oluwabusola

I recently came across a webinar hosted by Hexa Media Africa, titled “Income Diversification in the African NGO Sector — Exploring Social Enterprise Models,” and it truly left me with quite a number of things to think about, one of which particularly speaks to the question of how financial sustainability can actually start to shift the original vision behind why certain missions start in the first place.

Why Organisational Culture Matters

By Victor Jacob

“Rome was not built in a day.” Neither is an organisation's culture. It requires everyone's effort.

What Does Accessibility Even Mean?

Photo by Shafin Ashraf on Unsplash

By Florence Shadrack 

Amara knew she was in trouble.

The Pressure to Succeed

Photo by African Student Association on Unsplash

By Victor Jacob

At some point, “What do you want to become?” stops being a childhood question.

It has become a deadline.

Connected, But Apart

Photo by Mariia Berezovsky on Unsplash

By Victor Jacob

Having your friends over for dinner can be exciting, especially when you have not seen each other in a long time. You have planned the meetup for weeks. You prepare the food, arrange the table, and look forward to catching up on old times.

Beyond the Certificate

Photo by Oscar Omondi on Unsplash

By Victor Jacob

A young person can spend years preparing for examinations and still feel unprepared when the examinations end. They can graduate with good grades yet struggle to write an application email to a potential employer. They can understand all the theories and still feel lost when faced with a problem that has no clear answer. They can even acquire diverse certificates and yet wonder what they are actually prepared to do with them.

How Community Partnership Can Drive Sustainable Development

Photo by Random Institute on Unsplash

By Ojo Timothy

Sustainable development does not happen from the top down. It grows from the ground up, through the people who experience the effects of development every day. Development plans created outside a community may have good intentions and enough funding, but they can struggle to continue when the funding ends and the outside organisations leave. Community partnership can help change this. It makes development a shared responsibility and gives people a role in shaping solutions that affect their lives.

Child Marriage and Its Impact on Girls' Education

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

By Ojo Timothy

In many communities, a girl's education can end not with graduation, but with marriage.

Allied Men: How Real Allyship Looks

Photo from the 2026 Men's Summit. Image Credit: YouthHub Africa

By Victor Jacob

Conversations on gender equality and the fight against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) have gone on for as long as I can remember.

Our First SIWES Interns Complete Their Training

Shades of Us First Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) Interns at an Official Event to Chart A Way Forward for Nigeria's Economic Development

by Ramatu Ada Ochekliye

The first set of interns placed at Shades of Us through the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) have completed their six-month training with us.

The Work of SBC Continues

Shades of Us at the “Collectively Inspiring SBCC in Nigeria” Event Hosted by CCSI in Abuja. Image Credit: CCSI.

 By Ramatu Ada Ochekliye

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.

The Flood is Partly Your Fault

Photo by Farah Nabil on Unsplash

 By Ramatu Ada Ochekliye

Abuja is flooding again. And, as expected, everybody has something to say about who is responsible.

Pretending To Care

Fighting for women’s rights is our feminist call. And sometimes, it takes a toll on our physical and mental health.

 By Ramatu Ada Ochekliye

There has been a lot of conversation recently about Trevor Noah and South Africa.

Log Off

Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash

Ojo Timothy

“It is just the internet. Log off.

The Audacity to Disrupt

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. 

Decriminalising Attempted Suicide in Nigeria

Image by The Cable Nigeria

By Cynthia Umeh

Nigeria has taken an important step in the way it responds to suicide and mental health crises.

Mind WellNest Is Live, Bringing Care Closer to Home

Image by Shades of Us

By Cynthia Umeh

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.

Why Effort Doesn't Equal Income Anymore

Photo by Random Institute on Unsplash

Ojo Timothy

Let us stop gaslighting ourselves. 

The Conversations Men Were Never Taught to Have

 

by Victor Jacob

There are some conversations many men learn to avoid long before they learn how to have them.

Poor Communication May Hurt More Than The Crisis

Photo by Erik Hathaway on Unsplash

By Kashibu Victory 

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.

The Evidence We Choose

 

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.

Academic Pressure and Students' Mental Health

Photo by Emmanuel Ikwuegbu on Unsplash

By Ojo Timothy

Education opens doors to opportunity, but the pressure to perform is quietly wearing down the students walking through those doors.

From Academia to Action

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

By Victor Jacob

What if the greatest failure of research is not that it goes unpublished, but that it goes unused?

Becoming Accustomed to Indignity

Photo by Ssenyondo Gabriel on Unsplash

By Florence Shadrack 

By 7:15 that morning, Daniel was already running late.