‘Women should acquire relevant skills for their career growth’

Funke Sanyaolu-Famoroti is an Inspirational Speaker, Author, Writer, Professional Counsellor and Entrepreneur. She is the founder of Blossom Inspirational TV, which focuses on inspiring people to greatness, especially the young adults. She had her first degree at the University of Ibadan and further had a Professional masters on Public Relations and Trauma Counselling respectively.

With over a decade experience in counselling, she has an undying passion for value reorientation among African youths helping them discover, develop and deploy their natural gifts and talents. Sanyaolu-Famoroti helps widows and destitute bounce back to life from the trauma of their past experiences and over the past years, there have been tremendous testimonies of changed lives. In this interview with IJEOMA THOMAS-ODIA, she speaks on her career, passion for counseling and her activities.

What endeared you to counselling?
At age 18, I discovered that amongst my peers, I tend to be the one that every one runs to ask questions or discuss matters with. To my surprise, I wondered how I was able to proffer solutions to whatever that was brought to me then (now when I reflect I can trace it all to God Almighty, the wisdom of God and the gift of wisdom God has given me).

This was always happening from time to time that anywhere I am, people find it easy to relate with me and confide in me. As this went on for several years, I continued with my first degree at the university, but knew by the time I got to 400-level that I had a path in counselling. I discovered fully that God was showing me my path in life, so I decided that I will pursue it as a career, which made me further my post graduate studies on professional counseling and as well as Trauma Counselling.

With over a decade as a counsellor, how would you evaluate your impact and activities?
Being a counselor of over a decade has been a journey of grace and God has been with me. Yes, to the glory of God, we at Blossom Inspirational TV have numerous testimonies of changed lives; people have blossomed from being battered to living a life of fulfillment. Several suicidal cases where the survivors are now stabilised and doing well; seminars and symposiums for youth on discovering their path, gifts, potentials and talents, helping widows heal-up quickly and move forward, counseling prostitutes and helping in their rehabilitation. These people send us messages from all over the world, testifying of how Blossom Inspirational TV as inspired them and help in their stability. The testimonies are countless, but I personally will not take this glory, so I ascribe all the glory to Almighty God who is the giver of this great vision and my strength in ages past.

As founder of Blossom Inspirational TV, what are some of the values you are championing through this medium?
Blossom inspirational TV is a gift to humanity at this time and I say this with all sense of humility. You will agree with me that it is a hurting world we have out there, so we are committed to promoting values, including, joy, love, hope, focus, diligence, courage, positive mindset, responsibility and rest. These nine core values guard the contents we put out there and there have been countless feedbacks from our followership all over the world as these values have impacted them (via our contents) greatly.

You are passionate about value reorientation among African youths, helping them discover their natural gifts. What informed this?
What informed this is as a result of all I observed and experienced growing up. I observed that in the African society, the younger generation (between five to 18) is almost left to figure out life on their own, especially when it comes to self-discovery. In most cases, I stand to be corrected; the youths are not paid much attention to as much as is required to help them discover their natural talents and potentials.

In realising this fact and judging from my own experience of this deprivation, I decided to help them begin life early by inspiring, encouraging and helping them discover, develop, utilise and maximise their natural gifts and talents in and on time. This we do by periodically visiting secondary schools and organising symposiums on self-discovery and mastery.

What are some of the hitches you have faced on your way to achieving and fulfilling purpose?
I must say that we have come this far only by the grace of God. From the inception of this noble course/vision, after God, I have been the only financier to the vision through the little proceeds from my business. This have been challenging because there are numerous people whose needs we ought to have met but financial constraints.

We have a programme called ‘put a smile on faces; a quarterly programme where we reach out to the downtrodden, destitute and miscreants in the society. We put together clothes, foodstuffs, household items, as well as money to support various people. In a nutshell, the major hitches we are having have been financial and vision support as we need people who can work with us in touching more lives as financiers/donors and volunteers.

What’s your take on the security situation in Nigeria today?
The current spate of insecurity in this nation calls for a serious concern. The rate of banditry, kidnapping, and insurgencies are daring and it calls for serious and right intervention. The last few years in this nation has been horrific. If nothing is done as soon as possible, we are likely to have the nation disintegrate.

It is highly important that we take a cursory look at the fundamental root causes of this problem. The insecurity situation is hydra-headed with different dimensions to it. Firstly, we have the common insecurity situation that is the product of pathological criminals who have the natural proclivity for crime. By that, we mean those who are into armed robbery, gangsterism by default and who enjoys such life-style.

Secondly, we are having politically motivated insecurity. In recent past, we as a nation have witness how those criminals have been raised and armed with dangerous weapons during electioneering season. The danger, however, is that after election, majority of those boys become untamed and thus constitute nuisance in their various communities.

The third dimension to security challenge we face is reactions to perceived injustice and oppression. There have been allegations by same ethnic groups of being marginalised and unjustly treated. It has become extremely necessary that there must be a deliberate effort to ensure that all stakeholders and the different ethnic groups sit down to dialogue and cone to a united decision on how to coexist and move the nation forward. Issues of constitutional review or reconstruction and national restructuring must be brought to the forefront of national dialogue and addressed immediately. Only then that we can achieve a collective effort in tackling the security challenge. Unless that is done, the insecurity problem will continue with many sources of promotion. I therefore recommend strongly at this point the deliberate dialoguing of all stakeholders in the nation about the fundamentals of our co-existence and the guiding parameters of our unity.

You are an Inspirational Speaker, Author, Writer and Entrepreneur, how do you marry all these and still be at your best in the home front?
I grew up with my paternal grandmother who was a very articulate and hardworking woman; God bless her soul. She taught me diligence and multitasking, which has formed my person till this very moment. I tell you, I can do several things concurrently without one suffering for the other. The caps I wear are much, but I have been able to do this through the grace of God and the skills learnt like ability to prioritise and plan.

As a counselor focused on emotional and physical wellness, what message do you have for women finding it hard to put their lives tighter, especially in this changing times?
In my journey as a counselor I have observed that everyone, most especially women, go through that moment where they need Emotional and Physical Wellness Support arising from the family and societal pressures faced on a daily bases mostly in Africa (Nigeria) hence the need for such an organisation such ours. I always encourage women to take their health seriously, embrace self discovery and give room to growth by acquiring relevant skills they need for their careers and lives journey. Support one another through the good and not so good times. Build great networks of good people because no one is an island because you are as rich as your network What is your philosophy of life?

My philosophies of life are: God first in everything you do, do unto others as you want others to do unto you and do your best and put the rest in God.

Your words?
It is my desire that someday the world will be free from all sorts of pain and trouble. It is my prayer that every heavy hearted, battered and wounded person out there receives their healing and by this I mean their emotional healing and stability, one major reason why Blossom Inspirational TV came to lighten up humanity.