Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi: From Survivor to Leading Advocate for Women's Rights
Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi is a highly regarded specialist in the fields of project management, human rights, and social and behavioural change.
She is also an advocate for gender equality and policy. Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi is an activist for women's rights. The Stand to End Rape (STER) Initiative was founded by her.
She was the second woman from Nigeria to be listed on Time 100 Next in 2019, and that same year, she was also awarded Commonwealth Young Person of the Year. Osowobi was inspired to become an advocate by her mother while growing up in Nigeria.
Before enrolling at Swansea University to pursue a master's degree in international relations, she graduated from Ahmadu Bello University with a bachelor's degree in local government and development studies. Her dissertation addressed gender equality and sex crimes against women and children.
Osowobi served for the Independent National Electoral Commission during her required National Youth Service in the 2011 general elections. In 2017, She told Guardian that after she declined a bribe, "the village and community members...set a trap for (her) to be raped by one of the village boys" while working. In 2013, she created Stand to End Rape (STER).
The campaign aims to raise awareness about violence against women and to assist victims of sexual assault. According to Time, the organization had touched over 200,000 Nigerians as of 2019.
In 2017, Osowobi received a Genius Grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.S he was selected one of Time 100 Next's Persons of the Year in 2019, becoming only the second Nigerian woman to do so.