There are beginnings that announce themselves. And then there are beginnings so small that, at the time, almost nobody can see what they might become. On January 10, 2016, fewer than 20 women gathered on WhatsApp around an idea that would become WONDIVA Global Community. There was no way of knowing then that this small beginning would grow into a community of thousands, with more than 50 volunteers, multiple expressions and programmes, and a decade-long story of women finding identity, direction, connection and purpose. But perhaps that is the thing about meaningful work: it does not always begin with a grand entrance. Sometimes, it begins with one person seeing a need and deciding that something should be done about it.

That person was Nkechi Emmanuel-Layode, fondly known as SAGENEL. And ten years later, the story of WONDIVA cannot be told without telling the story of the woman who has spent a decade building it. Not simply because she founded it, but because the work has become deeply intertwined with her own journey of becoming. Nkechi has always seemed drawn to the spaces where people are trying to understand themselves, their relationships, their work, their purpose and the possibilities ahead of them. Her work has therefore never been confined to one title. She has been a counselor, author, community builder, leadership practitioner, media personality, mediator, educator and technology creator. Beneath all of these expressions, however, is one consistent thread: people.

She has built around people for years. She has written for them, counseled them, taught them, spoken to them, created communities for them and designed systems intended to help them move from where they are to where they can become. Her work reflects a particular fascination with the architecture of human potential: what shapes a person, what holds them back, what helps them flourish, and what happens when they finally begin to see themselves differently.

It is part of what makes WONDIVA such an important reflection of its founder. What started as a WhatsApp community has evolved into something far more expansive, serving women across different seasons and circumstances of life. Students. Singles. Wives and mothers. Businesswomen. Career women. Women seeking spiritual development, personal growth, relationship wisdom and leadership. Over the years, WONDIVA has developed different expressions to meet people where they are, but the underlying idea has remained remarkably consistent: helping women see themselves as God sees them and live from that understanding.

But there is another part of this story that numbers cannot capture. Ten years of building anything is rarely ten years of smooth sailing, and Nkechi’s journey has been no different. There have been seasons of uncertainty, disappointments, difficult decisions and moments when the weight of what she was carrying must have felt heavier than what anyone outside the room could see. There have been things that did not work, plans that had to change, doors that did not open and moments that demanded that she find the strength to begin again. Yet, somehow, she kept returning to the work.

That may be one of the most remarkable things about her story. She did not build WONDIVA because she had figured everything out. She built while figuring things out. She grew while growing the community. She learned while teaching. She evolved while asking other women to evolve. And when life required her to stretch, she stretched. When something had to be rebuilt, she rebuilt it. When a chapter ended, she found the courage to turn the page without pretending that the previous one had not mattered.

There is resilience in that kind of becoming. Not the loud kind that announces itself, but the quieter kind that gets up again. The kind that keeps showing up when there is no guarantee that the next attempt will be easier. The kind that understands that purpose is not always proved by how quickly something succeeds, but sometimes by how unwilling you are to abandon it when it becomes difficult.

Perhaps this is why the story of WONDIVA at ten feels so deeply connected to the story of Nkechi herself. The community has had to evolve, and so has the woman who started it. Neither has remained exactly as they were in 2016. What began with fewer than 20 women on WhatsApp has become a growing ecosystem of women, programmes, expressions and opportunities. And the woman behind it has, over those same years, moved through different seasons of professional and personal formation, becoming a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, authoring more than 35 books and workbooks, working across counseling, mediation, leadership and governance, stepping into media, building technology solutions and continually finding new ways to serve people.

Her professional journey tells its own story of curiosity and reinvention. She has worked in counseling and family development, built expertise in mediation and negotiation, entered spaces concerned with leadership and nation building, hosted and contributed to media programmes, and created technology solutions designed to support the work of counselors and emotional wellness. The surface details may look like separate achievements, but underneath them is a woman repeatedly asking the same question in different forms: How can people be helped to live, relate, lead and become better?

That question has taken her into rooms that are deeply personal and others that are decidedly structural. Into conversations about relationships and marriage, but also leadership and governance. Into books and workbooks, but also technology. Into community building, but also professional practice. And perhaps this is why the idea of a “legacy system” matters so much in understanding her work. Nkechi does not appear to be interested only in doing good work in her own lifetime. She is interested in creating structures, resources, communities and systems that can continue to help people beyond a single moment.

That is what makes ten years significant.

Because WONDIVA is not simply an online community that survived for a decade. It is evidence of what can happen when an idea is nurtured long enough to become an institution. It is evidence that community can be more than an audience. It can become a place where people grow, find language for what they are experiencing, encounter new possibilities and discover that they are not alone.

And behind that community is a woman who has had to keep becoming herself while helping other people become themselves.

There is something deeply human about that.

We often tell stories about builders as though they stood outside the things they built, untouched by the process. But real building changes the builder too. Ten years of listening to women, carrying responsibility, navigating disappointment, creating again, learning, leading, counseling, writing, speaking and serving cannot leave a person exactly as they were. The work shapes you. The people shape you. The failures shape you. The seasons you survive shape you.

And so, when Nkechi speaks about building a legacy system for women, families, organisations and nations, it is difficult to separate that ambition from the evidence of her own life. She has spent the last decade constructing systems for others while, in many ways, becoming a more complex system herself, one shaped by experience, faith, professional discipline, relationships, leadership, setbacks, reinvention and an enduring willingness to keep going.

That willingness matters.

Because resilience is not the absence of difficulty. It is what happens when difficulty does not get the final word.

For Nkechi, the last ten years have not simply been about maintaining something she started. They have been about repeatedly finding the courage to expand the vision without losing the heart of it. WONDIVA has grown, but so has she. Her work has widened from community to counseling, from books to media, from leadership to technology, from individual transformation to systems and structures. Yet the centre remains the same: helping people become more fully who they were created to be.

Now, WONDIVA stands at ten.

The anniversary theme, “The Magnificence of God,” feels fitting for a journey that began with fewer than 20 women and has continued to unfold across a decade. From October 28 to 31, 2026, women connected to the community will gather at Redemption Camp in Ogun State for a 10th Year Anniversary Retreat and Celebration, a few days of prayer, worship, healing, sisterhood, laughter, deep conversations, leadership, connection and reflection, culminating in an anniversary dinner and thanksgiving.

But perhaps the most meaningful thing about an anniversary is not simply looking at what has been built. It is looking back at the person who had to build it.

Ten years is a celebration. But for Nkechi Emmanuel-Layode, it is also evidence. Evidence that resilience can outlive difficult seasons. Evidence that purpose can survive uncertainty. Evidence that a small beginning does not have to remain small. And evidence that sometimes, the people who spend their lives building others are quietly being built into something greater themselves.

Ten years ago, fewer than 20 women gathered on WhatsApp. They could not have known what that small beginning would become. They could not have seen the thousands of women who would eventually find their way into WONDIVA, the communities that would grow around it, the programmes that would emerge, or the woman Nkechi herself would become along the way. They simply began.

And perhaps that is what makes this story so powerful. The beginning did not look extraordinary. The commitment did.

On January 10, 2016, it was fewer than 20 women and a WhatsApp community. Ten years later, it is WONDIVA, a community, an ecosystem and a decade-long testament to what can happen when someone refuses to abandon what they believe is worth building.

And Nkechi is still here. Still learning. Still creating. Still serving. Still becoming. Still building.

The story that began with fewer than 20 women is not finished.

If that small beginning could become this much in ten years, the question is no longer simply what WONDIVA has become.

It is what might become possible in the next ten years because she refused to give up.

Changemaker of the Month | September 2026

Adoo Atera is the kind of person whose achievements can easily tell only half the story.

On paper, there is a lot to notice. Academic excellence. Multiple First Class achievements. Volunteering. Mentoring. Facilitation. Research. Spoken word. Public speaking. Moderation. Work with young people and involvement in conversations around education, technology and social change.

But spend a little more time with her story and another picture begins to emerge.

What stands out is not just how much Adoo has achieved, but what she has chosen to do with what she has learned along the way. She has consistently found ways to give her time, knowledge and skills to other people. She has volunteered, mentored young people, taught children, facilitated conversations and supported causes that matter to her.

For Adoo, excellence has never seemed to be the end of the journey. It has been something she can use in service of others.

That is what makes her story interesting.

Because there are many brilliant young people. There are many people who volunteer. There are many people who can speak well, moderate a room or put together an impressive academic record. What is less common is seeing all these things come together in one person, and seeing them connected by such a strong thread of service.

And that thread has been there for longer than many people may realise.

When Adoo was still waiting for university admission, she returned to her former school and led a three-week leadership training for 35 prefects. She was only 18. She did not yet know what her own academic and professional journey would become, but she already understood something important: you do not have to have everything figured out before you can be useful to someone else.

That willingness to be useful has continued to show up in different ways throughout her journey. Her volunteering has taken her into spaces where she could mentor young people, support community initiatives and share practical skills. She has volunteered with Youngstars Development Initiative, contributed to The Adekunle Child Foundation, facilitated skills for children through Inspiration Life Community Church and volunteered with Beyond the Classroom Foundation.

One of the details that stayed with me is that she once volunteered to teach eight children how to make bead necklaces, table mats and slippers. It is easy to overlook something like that when there are bigger achievements to talk about, but I think it tells us a lot about her. Service is not always about leading a major project or standing on a large stage. Sometimes, it is simply having something useful to offer and being willing to give it.

Adoo has also spoken about the value of volunteer time and the importance of recognising that people are already giving something valuable when they give their time, energy and skills. I find that perspective particularly interesting because volunteering is sometimes treated as though the volunteer should simply be grateful for the opportunity. Adoo’s thinking challenges that. If someone chooses to give their time to an organisation or cause, that contribution has value, and it should be respected.

Her approach to service also comes through in the way she thinks about development work. Adoo has challenged the idea that passion alone is enough to create meaningful impact. Passion may get you started, but there is still the work of fundraising, building and managing teams, documenting what you do, measuring results and asking whether what you are doing is actually making a difference.

That is a very practical way of looking at social impact. She cares about the work, but she also cares about whether the work works.

The same thinking comes through in her views on risk. While some people hear “assess the risk” and immediately think someone is being negative, Adoo sees it as part of responsible leadership. You can be optimistic about an idea and still ask what could go wrong. You can believe strongly in a cause and still take time to think through how you are going to deliver it. In development work, where resources are limited and the people being served cannot afford poorly thought-out interventions, that kind of thinking matters.

Adoo is also intentional about how impact is communicated. She has spoken about the difference between branding and lying in the development sector, making the point that organisations need to do the real work, gather real results and then communicate that work honestly. In a space where organisations are constantly trying to tell stronger stories about their impact, her position is refreshingly simple: the story has to be rooted in the work.

Do the work, then tell the truth beautifully.

That idea says a lot about the way Adoo approaches impact. She is not interested in making something look impressive when the work behind it is not there. The work comes first. The story follows.

And then there is her creative side.

Adoo has a strong relationship with words and public expression, including spoken word and public speaking, and she has developed experience as an MC and moderator. These may look like different interests, but there is a connection. They all require the ability to communicate, listen and connect with people.

Her work as a moderator has taken her into conversations around creativity, capital, artificial intelligence, digital inclusion, youth development and the future of work. Being a good moderator is not just about holding a microphone. You have to listen carefully, understand the subject, ask questions that move a conversation forward and know when to let someone else’s voice take centre stage.

Adoo has increasingly found herself in that space, using communication as another way to contribute to conversations that matter. She can bring structure to a conversation, but she can also make room for other people to shine. That is a different kind of leadership, and one that is easy to underestimate.

There is also a more personal side to the way she uses her voice.

Adoo has spoken openly about the negative words spoken to her as a child and the effect those words had on her as she grew older. She has shared her journey of confronting those words and refusing to allow them to define her, while also encouraging adults to think more carefully about what they say to children.

That is a vulnerable thing to share publicly. But it also connects deeply with the work she does around young people. There is a difference between telling people that words matter and knowing personally what it feels like when they do.

Her interest in young people runs through almost every part of her journey. Whether through mentoring, volunteering, facilitation or conversations about education and the future, Adoo keeps finding herself in spaces where young people are learning how to navigate the world and figure out who they want to become.

And perhaps this is one of the things I find most interesting about her. She understands that young people do not only need information. They need people who will listen to them, guide them, teach them, encourage them and sometimes simply remind them that they are capable of more than they currently see.

Her own journey gives her a personal understanding of that process. She knows what it feels like to be young and still figuring things out. She also knows what it means to have someone open a door, create an opportunity or simply believe that you have something valuable to offer.

Looking at Adoo’s journey as a whole, it would be easy to describe her with a long list of impressive words: academic, volunteer, facilitator, researcher, moderator, creative and changemaker. But what connects all these things is service. Not service as a word that sounds good in an organisation’s mission statement, but service as a repeated choice to give your time, share your knowledge, create opportunities, ask difficult questions and make room for other people.

That thread was already visible when she was 18 and returned to her former school to train 35 prefects. It is visible in the young people she has mentored, the children she has taught, the organisations she has supported and the conversations she has helped facilitate. It is also visible in the way she thinks about impact.

Adoo is not interested in simply being busy or being associated with good causes. She wants the work to be useful, honest and meaningful. She wants people to be able to point to something real and say, this made a difference.

And this is where her academic excellence and her work as a changemaker come together. Adoo has achieved a lot academically, but what I find even more interesting is what she has chosen to do with that knowledge. She has used it to teach, to volunteer, to mentor, to facilitate conversations and to contribute to the lives of other people.

She can be ambitious about her own growth while still creating room for others to grow. She can take her education seriously without making her achievements the end of the story. She can pursue excellence and still ask, “What can I do with this that will be useful to someone else?”

That question seems to sit quietly underneath so much of what she does.

And when you look back at that 18-year-old Adoo, waiting for university admission but choosing to return to her former school to train 35 prefects, the picture becomes clearer. She did not need to have the rest of her life mapped out before she could contribute. She simply saw something she could do and did it.

Years later, the platforms are bigger, the conversations are broader and the experiences are richer, but that part has remained.

She still shows up. She still contributes. She still looks for ways to make what she knows useful to someone else.

That, to me, is the real story behind the achievements.

Adoo Atera is not simply someone who has excelled academically. She is someone who has continued to turn that excellence outward. Her achievements tell us what she is capable of. Her volunteering tells us what she chooses to do with that ability. Her creativity gives her a voice, and her commitment to service gives that voice somewhere meaningful to go.

And when you put all of that together, we come back to where we started.

Adoo is the kind of person whose achievements can easily tell only half the story.

The degrees, awards, platforms and titles matter. They tell us about her discipline, intelligence and capacity. But the volunteering, the mentoring, the children she has taught, the conversations she has helped shape and the people she continues to make room for tell us something deeper.

They tell us what she does with what she has.

And that is what makes Adoo Atera a changemaker.

Long before Ononuju Silver Okwaraogoma found himself working across some of the biggest institutions in global development, he was simply a young man willing to volunteer. He gave his time, showed up, learned, worked with people and took whatever opportunities to serve came his way. He probably could not have known then just how much those experiences would shape the road ahead.

Today, his career spans civil societies, UNESCO, the African Union, UNICEF and UNDP. But when he talks about how he got here, one sentence stands out: “Volunteering gave me a platform.”

That may be the simplest way to understand Uju’s journey. Beneath the impressive titles and international institutions is a career built, step by step, on service, hard work, relationships and a willingness to keep showing up. And perhaps that is fitting for someone whose personality is as unassuming as his journey is impressive.

If you meet Uju, one of the things you are likely to notice is how calm he is. He is not someone who makes a big show of himself or his achievements. There is a quietness about him, and somehow, that makes his journey even more interesting.

His story in the development space began in Nigeria, as a volunteer with the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) Nigeria. He was working on youth peace education and youth peacebuilding, supporting research and programme development and contributing to efforts that tracked conflict, peace and security in Nigeria. It might have looked like an early career opportunity at the time. Looking back now, it feels like something more. It put him close to young people, peacebuilding and the realities behind the development work he would eventually spend much of his career doing.

But he kept volunteering. He moved through different spaces, meeting people, learning from them and finding new ways to contribute. He worked alongside people who were themselves building organisations and communities around service, and those relationships became part of his education too.

At some point, he decided to try building something himself.

In 2016/2017, Ononuju started Pro-Volunteer, an attempt to create a platform that would connect volunteers with organisations. It did not pull through. But the idea says something about how he was beginning to see volunteering. It was no longer simply about giving your time away. It could be a way for someone to gain experience, meet people, discover what they were good at and get into rooms they might otherwise never have entered.

A platform.

And looking at where his own journey would eventually take him, that idea feels particularly significant.

Before the international conferences, policy conversations and development programmes came the quieter work of learning. Uju studied at Babcock University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in International Law and Diplomacy, and later earned a Master of Arts in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Ibadan. His education and his experiences in civil society were beginning to meet.

His next steps took him into international civil society and human rights work, including an exchange with CIVICUS in Geneva, where he supported civil society engagement around the Human Rights Council and the Universal Periodic Review. Then came UNESCO.

His work there brought him into youth empowerment, education, coordination, programme management, partner engagement, teacher development, peacebuilding and the prevention of violent extremism. He was working across programmes and partnerships, but the issues still connected to what had drawn him into development in the first place: young people, education, peace, and the systems that determine the opportunities people have.

By the time he moved into the African Union, the scale had changed considerably. He was now working on youth development and partnerships at a continental level, helping to connect young Africans with opportunities for learning, leadership, entrepreneurship and service. He also supported the recruitment and training of more than 200 young people through the African Union Youth Volunteer Corps.

There is something quite beautiful about that part of the journey. The young volunteer who had once been looking for opportunities to contribute was now helping create opportunities for other young people.

The platform had come full circle.

And perhaps this is one of the things that stands out about Uju’s career. The work keeps changing, but there is usually a familiar thread running through it: people, young people, opportunity, service, coordination, programme management, project management, programme implementation, stakeholder engagement and partnership.

By the time he got to UNDP, the questions had become bigger. His work moved into governance, the rule of law, and Business and Human Rights, putting him in rooms where governments, businesses, civil society organisations, and development partners had to find common ground.

The issues were more complex, but perhaps the skills were not so different from what he had been learning all along: listen, understand people, build relationships and keep the work moving.

His work in Business and Human Rights has led him to support more than 20 countries and engage with more than 30 partners and organisations. He has also led the African Business and Human Rights Forum, which has brought together hundreds of stakeholders around the business and human rights agenda in Africa.

It is the kind of work that rarely comes with dramatic moments. A lot of it is coordination. Conversations. Follow-ups. Finding the person who needs to be in the room. Getting people with different interests to work towards the same goal.

But maybe that is exactly where his temperament becomes useful.

Uju is quiet. Measured. Not particularly interested in making every achievement an announcement. And not every kind of leadership needs to be loud. Sometimes it is listening carefully before speaking. Sometimes it is knowing when to step forward and when to let the work speak. Sometimes it is simply being dependable enough that people know they can count on you.

His UNICEF chapter brought another dimension to the same journey, this time through partnerships and donor engagement. He coordinated a multi-country project across seven UNICEF country offices and supported a broader portfolio spanning 14 offices.

Again, the names and institutions changed. The work remained about bringing people, resources and ideas together to solve problems.

And perhaps that is why his career feels less like a series of jumps between organisations and more like a gradual expansion of the same idea: start with people, understand their realities, create opportunities, build systems, bring people together, and keep doing the work.

There is also something to be said about resilience. When we look at someone who has worked across major international institutions, we often see the polished version of the journey. We see the titles and the organisations. We don’t see all the learning that happened between them.

We don’t see the unfamiliar rooms, the new systems, the new expectations or the need to constantly prove yourself again. We don’t see all the times a person had to learn something new, adjust, start over or simply keep going.

A career that moves across civil society, education, youth development, continental policy, governance, human rights and international partnerships requires more than intelligence or opportunity. It requires hard work. It requires adaptability. And it requires the resilience to keep learning.

Perhaps that is why the quietness matters. There is a certain kind of person who does not need every achievement to become an announcement. They simply move on to the next assignment, the next problem, the next room, the next piece of work that needs to be done.

And looking at Uju’s journey, that seems to be part of what makes it compelling.

His career has never really been about one subject. It has been about people, young people, communities, institutions, governments, businesses, development partners, and the relationships between all of them.

From volunteering in Nigeria to working across continental and international development institutions, the thread running through the journey is not simply ambition.

It is service.

The kind of service that demands integrity when nobody is watching. The kind that demands hard work when the work is tedious. The kind that demands resilience when the path changes. And perhaps the kind that allows a quiet person to leave a very significant mark.

Because not every impact is loud. Some of it happens in meetings nobody hears about. In programmes people may never know who coordinated. In partnerships whose success depends on someone quietly keeping all the pieces together. In young people who receive an opportunity because someone helped build the system that made that opportunity possible.

That may be the most fitting way to look at Ononuju Silver Okwaraogoma. Not simply as a man who has worked for some of the biggest names in development, but as someone who has spent years doing the quieter work of making development possible.

And perhaps, in a world that often celebrates the loudest voices, there is something refreshing about a career that began with volunteering and grew through showing up, doing the work, building trust and creating opportunities for others.

Quietly. Steadily. With purpose.