Lydia, a Nigerian front-line worker and humanitarian advocate, shares her personal experience of being stranded in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health toll of isolation and uncertainty, and how she channeled her passion for service into volunteering with disabled and mentally ill individuals while calling for stronger institutional support systems for front-line caregivers.
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Transcript
[03:16:30] Next we have
[03:16:32] Coming to the stage
[03:16:34] My Nigerian sister
[03:16:36] Lydia
[03:16:38] Hey give it up for Lydia
[03:16:40] Y’all
[03:16:42] Woo
[03:16:44] Good evening everyone
[03:16:46] Good evening
[03:16:48] Give the mic
[03:16:50] It’s yours
[03:16:52] I thought I was very loud
[03:16:56] Because we Nigerians
[03:16:58] When we speak our language
[03:17:00] We are Nigerians
[03:17:02] We are Nigerians
[03:17:04] We are Nigerians
[03:17:06] We are Nigerians
[03:17:08] We are Nigerians
[03:17:10] We are Nigerians
[03:17:12] We are Nigerians
[03:17:14] with friends, sometimes they have squeevers. And then everybody’s like, are you sure we
[03:17:19] won’t call the police? But tonight, my voice has to speak. And today, I’m speaking out
[03:17:27] because I have been in the front line in the last one year, and I speak from the point
[03:17:35] of experience. Okay, my name is Lydia, as I’ve been introduced already. And my career
[03:17:48] pattern from Nigeria spans for over 15 years in customer engagement. I can describe myself
[03:17:54] as an expert in service delivery. After several years in telecoms, I have transitioned to
[03:18:02] insurance, still dealing with service delivery. And I’ve been in the front line for about
[03:18:05] 15 years in delivery. And passion for social work pushed me into looking out for education
[03:18:13] of out-of-school children in Africa, starting from the grassroots, where farmers and less
[03:18:21] privileged children are out of school. So that passion led me into, you know, beginning
[03:18:26] to work with grassroots women and children to ensure that out-of-school children get
[03:18:31] education.
[03:18:33] So, my story.
[03:18:35] Today, I will speak consigning my personal experience during the COVID pandemic. I came
[03:18:42] in here for a conference, and I was caught up in the web of the COVID pandemic. I couldn’t
[03:18:49] return home. The first three months, I was in an enclosure where I thought the world
[03:18:55] had ended. I will not see my family again. And I cried most of the time. The reality
[03:19:02] of mental issues came to me.
[03:19:05] Yes, truly. For all those number of months, I was enclosed not with any information, but
[03:19:18] because of what I do, and my passion for humanity, I spoke to myself, What are you
[03:19:22] going to do when you cannot be strong enough to get information, so you can help others?
[03:19:30] I decided to read a bit. I did an online certification, and understood a bit of how
[03:19:35] the pandemic was because a lot of information were flying in here and there a lot of people
[03:19:41] thought the world was ending people said do this do that and all that was coming to me big time
[03:19:47] because all i thought about was what about the people who look up to you what about the women
[03:19:51] you so love what about the widows out there in africa that you’re supporting what about the
[03:19:56] children that are out of school is this how you want to carry them along and yours truly it dawned
[03:20:01] on me that i needed to do something very quickly i braced myself with just little information that
[03:20:07] pushed me to the level where i started gathering support online on whatsapp pages i was there
[03:20:13] telling people you need to gather yourselves together practice hand washing practice this
[03:20:20] practice that and by the way you can survive it and of course from home everybody thought i was
[03:20:26] in the pandemic itself people were dying so what are you going to do you
[03:20:31] can’t even go anywhere if it catches up with you that’s the end well i say it’s not going to catch
[03:20:36] up with me but even if it does i have to be alive first of all to help people who are alive so the
[03:20:43] story being caught short i want to tell you today i decided there and then that i have to be a
[03:20:48] support system wherever i find myself and that is what i am and will continue to be i picked up the
[03:20:55] passion that i have always had for humanity and told myself if you want to help women in africa
[03:21:00] and which you are doing
[03:21:01] with or without money what do you have with you i’m a good christian and it reminded me of the
[03:21:07] story of the red sea to cross the road what is that in your hand you have nothing but you have
[03:21:13] your passion you have the help you can give to women and because my organization deals with women
[03:21:19] and children i looked in ways what is going on with the elderly a lot of more women are involved
[03:21:25] with disability especially with health issues and i decided i would work at the cna
[03:21:30] while the pandemic lasted
[03:21:31] that is what brought me the humanitarian aspect of service pushed me into home care we started at
[03:21:41] you know i mean with people with with disability the disability i was serving them at that point
[03:21:47] volunteering to work with them from that base so i got exposure to people who also had mental
[03:21:55] health issues at the point i was also breaking down i’m like oh sometimes i cry when i see people who
[03:22:01] are challenging this uh i see them they are they’re all strong but when the crisis come upon
[03:22:07] them or the time when they have their triggers i’m like but he’s all good what is wrong what can i do
[03:22:13] differently and then i see myself breaking down even when i want to give so much support
[03:22:19] but then i realized that the smaller entrepreneurs who own this organization especially um the
[03:22:25] nursing homes the in-house services for for disabled people or for people with their behavioral
[03:22:31] uh issues they didn’t really have a support system for the front liners and so i had discussions
[03:22:39] with a few of them but they couldn’t support us and it kept on and on like people are supporting
[03:22:46] people who need help yet they can’t support themselves can you really give what you don’t have
[03:22:53] who is looking at the people who are giving this support
[03:22:56] america is supposed to be the place where we learn the rest of the world will learn
[03:23:01] there needs to be a strong system that can support frontliners especially people dealing
[03:23:07] with people with behavioral issues mental disorders bipolar schizophrenia and all all
[03:23:13] the others as my friend kim will say the names are endless the acronyms are endless
[03:23:19] but who has taken time to give the support that is required
[03:23:23] who and who is willing to give that support it’s only when we speak out my able brother
[03:23:29] and the coordinators of this program
[03:23:32] i want to use this medium to say a big thank you to you we must continue to speak up we must
[03:23:37] continue to speak our truth and the truth will set everyone here free and many other people who
[03:23:44] are passing through this only the truth can set us free and i want to encourage us all to keep
[03:23:49] doing this if as long as i’m here i want to openly declare my support for this program and i tell you
[03:23:58] i’ll be willing to volunteer at any point in time when i’m called upon
[03:24:02] because that is my calling i want to discover and i have discovered the purpose for my life
[03:24:06] which is supporting others i want to thank you all for turning up and i believe that today has
[03:24:12] touched you as much as it has touched me thank you so much and god bless you all