Temie Giwa-Tubosun (born Oluwaloni Olamide Giwa, December 1985) is a Nigerian-American health manager, founder of LifeBank (formerly One Percent Project), a business enterprise in Nigeria working to improve access to blood transfusions in the country.[1][2][3][4]
Temie Giwa | |
---|---|
Born | Olúwalóní Ọlámidé Gíwá December 1985 Ila Orangun, Osun, Nigeria |
Nationality | Nigerian, American |
Other names | Temie Giwa, Temie Giwa-Tubosun, Oluwaloni Olatubosun |
Alma mater | |
Occupation |
|
Spouse | Kola Tubosun |
Website | www |
Life story
editTemie was born in Ila Orangun in Osun State Nigeria to a university professor and school teacher.[5] She is the fourth of six children. Her name "Temie" came from the abridging of "Temitope", one of her birth names.
She grew up in Ila, Ilesha, and in Ibadan until she was fifteen.[6] When she was ten, her parents won the US Diversity Immigrant Visa and left for the United States with the three older siblings. In 2001, at fifteen, she left to join them with her two younger siblings.[7]
Temie attended Osseo Senior High School, Minnesota, and graduated in 2003. She then attended the Minnesota State University Moorhead and graduated in 2007. In 2008, she went to graduate school at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey from where she graduated in July 2010.
In 2009, after her first year in graduate school, she returned to Nigeria for the first time since 2001 to intern for Department for International Development at Paths2 in Abuja, Nigeria.[8] The internship lasted three months during which she had an encounter with a poor mother called Aisha whose protracted labour convinced Giwa of the problem of maternal mortality among Nigerians.[9][10]
In January 2010, she went for a graduate fellowship at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, which lasted until July of that year when she graduated Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
She worked briefly at Fairview Health Services in Minnesota in 2010.
In August 2011, she began a fellowship with the Global Health Corps, and spent the next year at Mbarara, Uganda, working with the Millennium Villages Project a project of the United Nations Development Programme and Millennium Promise.
Full return to, and work in, Nigeria
editIn August 2012, Giwa returned to Nigeria. In September of that year, she got married at the University of Ibadan.[citation needed]
From February 2012 to October 2013, under the pen name "Temie Giwa", she wrote a weekly column on YNaija, a Nigerian youth-focused web magazine on the many issues facing the country. The column was titled What Works.[11]
From December January 2013 to January 2014, Giwa worked with the Lagos State Office of Facility Management whose work included upgrading schools, monuments, hospitals, and other facilities managed by the State.
From June 2014 to October 2015, Giwa was Program Manager for Nollywood Workshops, an NGO set up by the Hollywood, Health & Society, and described as "a hub for filmmakers in Lagos, Nigeria that supports and delivers movie production and distribution, training, and research."[12] In her role as Program Manager in August 2014, during the Ebola scare in Nigeria, Giwa helped supervise the production of Public Service Announcements created by the organisation in collaboration with Nollywood filmmakers, to better enlighten Nigerians about healthy ways to avoid being victims of Ebola.[13][14][15][16]
One Percent Project
editOn May 21, 2012, Temie founded a non-governmental organisation called "One Percent Blood Donation Enlightenment Foundation" or One Percent Project with the aim of ending blood shortage, educating people on the importance of blood donation for anyone in need of blood, to overcome fears, prejudice, myths and apathy of people on blood donation, and to increase an efficient distribution network of blood in blood banks in Nigeria.[17][18] The founding board of trustees were Oluwaloni Olamide Giwa, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Mustapha Maruf Damilola, Oluwaseun Odewale, Akintunde Oyebode, Mary Oyefuga, Hezekiah Olayinka Shobiye, and Kolawole Olatubosun.
LifeBank
editIn January 2016, Temie founded LifeBank, a business organisation set up to tackle the problem of blood shortage in Nigeria.[19] LifeBank is a medical distribution company that uses data and technology to discover and deliver essential medical products to hospitals in Nigeria. The founding was inspired by the birth of her first child and the complications from that experience.[20][21] The technology and logistics company[22] is based in Lagos, and incubated at Co-Creation Hub in Yaba.[23] As at January 2017, the company has helped deliver over 2000 pints of blood to patients across the state.[24]
On August 31, 2016, she met with Mark Zuckerberg during his first visit to Nigeria. She was one of the two women Zuckerberg referenced in his town hall meeting the next day.[25] Of her work, Zuckerberg had said, "If everyone had the opportunity to build something like this, then the world would be a better place... I've been to a lot of different cities... people around the world are trying to build stuff like that. If she actually pulls it off, then she'd show a model that will impact not just Lagos, not just Nigeria, but countries all around the world."[26][27][28] In the meeting, Temie said to Quartz, “Mark’s visit is validation for years of work and everything we’re trying to do.”[29]
In the past four years, the company has distributed about 26,000 products to more than 10,000 patients in nearly 700 hospitals in Nigeria; Ms. Giwa-Tubosun’s effort is now celebrated at home and abroad as an epitome of social entrepreneurship—using business to solve a major society’s problem.[30]
Honours and invitations
editBBC100
editIn 2014 Giwa was listed as one of the BBC 100 Women. She was the third Nigerian on the list, along with veteran broadcaster Funmi Iyanda and Obiageli Ezekwesili, Nigeria's former minister of education. She was also the youngest on the list. She was described in the selection as someone "to take notice of now [and] in the future", making a difference around the world by the BBC.[31][32]
TEDxEuston
editIn 2016, Giwa was invited to give a talk at the London-based TEDxEuston Salon event. Her talk was titled "Healthcare is a Right".[33]
YNaija 100
editIn March 2017, Giwa was named as one of the 100 Most Inspiring Women in Nigeria for 2017.[34]
World Economic Forum Innovators
editIn May 2017, she was selected as part of "six entrepreneurs who demonstrate the positive role women are playing in creating opportunities and preparing the region for the Fourth Industrial Revolution" by the World Economic Forum on Africa.[35]
Quartz African Innovators List
editOn May 5, 2017, Giwa was listed in the annual Quartz African Innovators List of "more than 30 Africans" who are "taking leadership and control in a wide range of fields including finance, healthcare, education, agriculture, design and many other fields."[36]
Jack Ma's Africa Netpreneur Prize
editOn November 16, 2019, Giwa was named the winner of Jack Ma's Africa Netpreneur Prize which held in Accra, Ghana. The win for LifeBank was worth $250,000. The Prize got applications from more than 10,000 startups from 50 of Africa's 54 countries.[37][38]
Global Citizen Prize
editIn December 2020, Giwa was awarded the Global Citizen Prize for Business Leader, for her work in addressing blood shortages in Nigeria, and LifeBank's work during the COVID-19 pandemic.[39][40][41]
African Folder
editIn March 2023, Temie Giwa-Tubosun was named among the "15 African Female Founders You Should Know In 2023" by African Folder.[42]
Personal life
editTemie lives in Lagos with her husband, Kola Tubosun who is a writer and linguist, and their son, Eniafe.[43]
References
edit- ^ "Blood shortage a huge problem in Nigeria". The Nation. 8 April 2016.
- ^ "For One Percent: An Innovative Blood Bank in Nigeria". Nigerian Health Watch. 25 August 2015.
- ^ "How innovative Mobile App is saving lives by connecting blood donors & recipients". Nigerian Health Watch. 28 August 2015.
- ^ "Temie wins Netpreneur award". TheAfricanDream.net. 17 November 2019.
- ^ Healthcare is a right | Temie Giwa-Tubosun, 19 January 2017, retrieved 4 March 2017
- ^ Ajumobi, Kemi (28 February 2020). "Women in Business: Temie Giwa-Tubosun". Businessday NG. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ "S2 Episode 1, I knew what I wanted- Temie Giwa-Tunbosun, Founder at LifeBank | Starta". www.thestarta.com. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
- ^ "In Nigeria, saving lives one pint at a time". ONE. 12 December 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ "In Nigeria, saving lives one pint at a time". One. 12 December 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ Healthcare is a right | Temie Giwa-Tubosun | TEDxEustonSalon, 19 January 2017, retrieved 4 March 2017
- ^ "Introducing the YNaija Frontpage Columnists – Tolu Ogunlesi, Akintunde Oyebode, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, Japheth Omojuwa, Temie Giwa, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji & Kathleen Ndongmo - YNaija". YNaija. 29 February 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ "nollywood workshops | MIT Center for Civic Media". civic.mit.edu. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ "TK, Nollywood Workshops, others launch 'Lens on Ebola' - The Nation Nigeria". The Nation Nigeria. 24 August 2014. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ Kuriansky, Judy (21 March 2016). The Psychosocial Aspects of a Deadly Epidemic: What Ebola Has Taught Us about Holistic Healing: What Ebola Has Taught Us about Holistic Healing. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781440842313.
- ^ "A True Initiative: The Nollywood Workshops". Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ Sabeti, Pardis (5 September 2014). "Studying Ebola, Then Dying From It". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ "Temie Giwa Tubosun". innovation-village.com. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ "The One Percent Project". ktravula - a travelogue!. 20 December 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ "Temie Giwa-Tubosun: the Nigerian entrepreneur delivering blood to patients". Africa Renewal. 28 September 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ "A Nigerian startup is tackling the desperate shortage of blood donations in Lagos". Newsweek. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ Healthcare is a right | Temie Giwa-Tubosun, 19 January 2017, retrieved 4 March 2017
- ^ "TEMIE GIWA-TUNBOSUN: Saving Lives By Moving Blood With Lifebank". AboveWhispers. 16 June 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ "A Nigerian startup is tackling the desperate shortage of blood donations in Lagos". Newsweek. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ Eweniyi, Odunayo (27 January 2017). "Health Startup, LifeBank Has Now Delivered Over 2000 Pints Of Blood". Konbini Nigeria. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ "Mark Zuckerberg In Nigeria: Two Women That Defined His Visit -". www.techvoize.com. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ "Mark Zuckerberg - Live with developers and entrepreneurs..." www.facebook.com. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
- ^ Kazeem, Yomi. "Zuckerberg's visit is a validation for betting big on Nigeria's tech industry". Retrieved 1 September 2016.
- ^ "Here's Why Mark Zuckerberg is in Nigeria + What He has been up to Since his Arrival". Retrieved 1 September 2016.
- ^ Kazeem, Yomi. "Zuckerberg's visit is a validation for betting big on Nigeria's tech industry". Quartz. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
- ^ "Temie Giwa-Tubosun: the Nigerian entrepreneur delivering blood to patients". Africa Renewal. 28 September 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
- ^ "Who are the 100 Women 2014?". BBC. 26 October 2014.
- ^ "3 Nigerian Women Listed In BBC's 100 Women Of 2014". 360Nobs. 16 November 2014.
- ^ Healthcare is a right | Temie Giwa-Tubosun, 19 January 2017, retrieved 4 March 2017
- ^ "Amina Mohammed, Mo Abudu, Somkele Idhalama & more! YNaija.com and Leading Ladies Africa present the 100 most inspiring women in Nigeria - YNaija". YNaija. 8 March 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
- ^ "World Economic Forum awards Africa's breakthrough female tech entrepreneurs". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- ^ "Quartz Africa Innovators 2017". Quartz. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
- ^ "Temie Giwa wins 250k". innovation-village.com. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- ^ Aisha Salaudeen and Stephanie Busari. "Nigerian entrepreneur Temie Giwa-Tubosun wins Jack Ma's African business hero award". CNN. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- ^ "Temie Giwa-Tubosun Wins Global Citizen Prize for Her Fight Against COVID-19". Technext. 24 December 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
- ^ "Alumna Temie Giwa-Tubosun Awarded 2020 Global Citizen Prize for Business Leader | Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey". www.middlebury.edu. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
- ^ "LifeBank Founder Temie Giwa-Tubosun Wins 2020 Global Citizen Prize for Business Leader". Global Citizen. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ "15 African Female Founders You Should Know In 2023". African Folder. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
- ^ "A Nigerian startup is tackling the desperate shortage of blood donations in Lagos". Newsweek. Retrieved 4 March 2017.