Episode 233: Dyslexia advocacy in Nigeria – with Oladoyin Idowu

The episode transcript is below.

Carolyn Kiel: Welcome to Beyond 6 Seconds, the podcast that goes beyond the six second first impression to share the extraordinary stories of neurodivergent people. I’m your host, Carolyn Kiel.

Carolyn Kiel: Before we get started, I want to give you a quick heads-up about some of the content in this episode. Our conversation today mentions physical and verbal abuse in school, suicidal ideation and a suicide attempt, and drug use. If these are difficult topics for you, please use your discretion when listening to this episode.

Carolyn Kiel: On today’s episode, I’m speaking with Oladoyin Idowu. Oladoyin is a pioneering dyslexia advocate and mental health professional dedicated to bridging the gap between neurodiversity, education, and mental well being.

Growing up in Nigeria with undiagnosed dyslexia, she experienced firsthand the challenges of navigating an education system that was not designed for neurodivergent learners. These experiences ignited her lifelong commitment to creating a more inclusive world. In 2016, she founded One Word Africa Foundation, becoming one of Nigeria’s foremost voices in dyslexia awareness and support. And as the head of operations at Serenity Nigeria, she spearheads mindfulness programs, workplace wellness retreats and holistic interventions that promote mental well being. Oladoyin, welcome to the podcast.

Oladoyin Idowu: Thank you for having me, Carolyn, and I’m excited to be here.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, I’m really happy to have you here and I’m really interested and excited to learn more about your experiences and the great work that you’re doing around dyslexia awareness and support.

So I’d love to start out by learning about your own story. What was your life like growing up in Nigeria with undiagnosed dyslexia?

Oladoyin Idowu: Okay. Well, what that looked like for me was being in the school system, feeling like I did not belong there, just because, you know, as a child, you know, so whenever I use that, whenever I go back to that story, it’s, it’s from a place of reflection. But I like to sit in, in that experience again, once in a while and try to just think of it in the shoes of a child.

So, you know, as a child, I was in the system looking to adults for directions and they also did not have an idea as to what I was going through. So even when I would speak to them and try to describe what I was feeling, they could not, they did not have answers for me. And when they demanded for me to have results, you know, and I wasn’t giving it to them, their reaction or response to that was due to the fact that they were ignorant as well. And what they were used to is setting, they’re used to setting realities that you go to school, you learn with your classmate, you have access to normal instructions and assignments and all that, and you get a certain result. And that’s what they’re used to.

And then they have this child who is experiencing things differently and who is a minority. It’s not, it’s not common, right? And so for them, they lacked understanding of it. And what they did instead was try to push the child because God forbid it was their own fault. It had to be from the child! It had to be something that I wasn’t doing right or me not trying enough or, you know, just me being stubborn. You know, that was what they misunderstood it to be.

And their reaction or response to that was to, you know, you know, make me have to face things like verbal abuse, physical abuse, corporal punishment as a way or means to motivate me to learn. And me as a child in that space, I genuinely wanted to learn. Because that’s, you know, that’s the reality, you know, the reality at the time as well is, I have colleagues, I have classmates, and I know what they’re capable of, and so it was already unusual that I couldn’t, you know, do what my colleagues were doing, the way they were doing it. So it was such confusing emotions, where I would always describe it to anybody as being in a tight box, where there is no leg room, there is no head room, You cannot turn left, turn right. You are put in that box and you are put in that box folded and there is no, there is no you know, there’s no place for a ventriculation. It’s all boxed up. That’s what I would always describe that as parents. And it was so lonely cause there was no one to share the experience with.

Sometimes I would even go to the hospital for a general checkup on malaria or whatever it is. Malaria is very common in this part of Nigeria. I would sometimes go to the hospital for general checkups and I would try to slip in some of the symptoms I was experiencing at the classroom in there. And the doctor not understanding what I was going through would not be able to refer any solution to me. So it was me seeking solutions, but nobody understanding what I was going through, and they reacting the way they knew best to, and me having to be at the receiving end of such punishments. That was the vicious cycle.

Carolyn Kiel: And the experiences you were describing, is that mostly in medical settings and also in school? Like, what was your family life at home?

Oladoyin Idowu: At home you know, it was similar experience. You know, I have parents who are, you know, working to put me in the best institutions. My parents used to pride themselves in ensuring that their children went to, you know, the best schools and all that. And, you know, they’re spending all that money. And for, for them, when I was struggling to learn, they, you know, supported me by getting me extra tutors. So they were spending a lot of money, but they were not seeing any result.

And that was frustrating for them because I wasn’t the only child that they had. So, you know, why are you different? You know, what’s going on with you? And so I was in court, the “black sheep” of the family, who was just different and, you know, just not what everybody was expecting to be.

Carolyn Kiel: So how did you eventually realize that you had dyslexia?

Oladoyin Idowu: So this was in 2015. And in 2015 I was already done with secondary school. I was doing my A levels. And I was just done. I was done with school. I was, I was no longer having it. It was no longer making sense to me because I couldn’t continue to deal with the vicious cycle of, you’re disappointed with me at home, you’re disappointed with me in school, you’re disappointed, everybody’s disappointed with me. And I, I couldn’t seem to understand why. I understood why they were disappointed, but I also couldn’t seem to, like, understand the basis as to why I was unable to give them what they wanted, right? Because they’re pushing me, they’re encouraging me, they’re flogging me, they’re insulting me, they’re doing all sorts of things to me.

And I hear it. I’m, I’m internalizing all of those things. I’m trying to find a solution. But I cannot seem to find a solution either! Because I’m searching myself. I had a teacher that would tell me that if I deceive everybody, I cannot deceive myself. I cannot lie to myself. And I genuinely would sit with myself sometimes and try to seek answers and understand my being. “What is going on with you? What is wrong with your head?” And I had no answers, you know, genuinely not.

And so in 2015, I was done. I was just done because there was no fulfillment and I felt terribly out of place in the world. And it just, I was tired. I was, I was really tired.

I like to give a disclaimer here in case words like suicidal ideation is triggering. But that was, you know, the kind of feelings I was having in this moment where, you know, it just felt like if I couldn’t be, if I couldn’t fit into this world, maybe I’m not supposed to be in it anyway. And those were the thoughts that was running through my head. So, and there was no escape, you know, no escape at home, no escape in school, no escape in church. I’m a Christian, there’s no escape anywhere that I went. So I wanted to quit. So in 2015, I decided that, you know what, I’m done. I’m just done. This is where I end everything. And so I started contemplating suicide very much.

And then I decided to also drop out of school and just be done with that. And, you know, trying to drop out in a Nigerian home was not acceptable. You know, my mom also being a teacher as well, it was just not an acceptable thing to do. And they, of course, tried to frustrate my, me at home, because, you know, they, they’re not, they’re not about to pamper you, you know, while you’re home dropped out of school, you know. You know, so they, you know, they tried to do all that and I was done. I didn’t mind it, you know, because it felt like a better experience than the overall experience I was having anyway. And but eventually I had a friend who intervened on the day that I was trying to overdose on, you know, medications. And I’m thankful for that. But yeah, that was, that was that.

So in that moment, anyway, I was trying to think about what the future holds, you know, what becomes of me, what will then become my reality now? So in trying to seek solutions there were things that before then I was naturally good at. So I was naturally good at things that involved using my hands like baking, cooking, designing stuff. And so I wanted to just do those. So I decided to learn to bake, cook because I felt I could do that professionally and make money off that. You know, just, you know, just find ways to cope and survive as a drop out, right? So in that moment, I started learning skills. So I I learned you know, baking, I learned how to cook. I also eventually dabbled into a bit of interior design. And that’s because I tried to bake. And I liked baking, but I realized that I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to bake professionally. Baking is something that I like to do for family on my own terms, you know. So, you know, I realized that I didn’t like that as much for work. So I learned interior design and events decoration and set design for film productions. And I enjoyed that quite well. So I started to, so I became an entrepreneur out of that.

But while in that moment, while doing those things, my self esteem started to pick up again, you know, because I finally found some, I finally found a place where I felt like I did not feel out of place in. And so I got curious. I got curious as to what there was going on.

So I was researching one day on the internet and I was asking Google a lot of questions. And so, you know, I typed into Google, am I dumb? Am I stupid? And you know, trust Google to have an an, you know, an answer to anything that you ask it. And it was bringing up a lot of things and it just, I didn’t find what I wanted, but I think I did that search a couple of other times after that.

And one day I came across an article and that article led me down here, which was an article on learning disabilities and different conditions that children may face and that would make them feel like they’re dumb or something like that. So I read that article and you know, it pointed me to dyslexia and I read, I read dyslexia and I read the symptoms and it made sense. I had such a light bulb moment, like all the things I’ve been telling everybody that kept releasing all my life and they didn’t seem to understand it. Somebody wrote about it in the present! And it felt like such a lightbulb moment. I was like, Oh my God, where have you been all my life?

You know, and yeah, it was love at first sight. Because that gave me an identity that finally made me feel like I was not abnormal after all, I was dyslexic. And that was the beginning of my research into dyslexia. And that also eventually became my advocacy for dyslexia.

Carolyn Kiel: Oh, wow. Yeah, it’s amazing how the internet, I think, really helped open up a lot of our understanding of things like learning disabilities and neurodivergence and just other, you know, mental health conditions on the other side and just really expanded our understanding because we just get this new knowledge.

And as you said, you were amazed that somebody actually wrote about these challenges that you were facing that no one seemed to understand until that point.

And then you mentioned your challenges in school. I guess most people when they think of dyslexia, think of reading as a learning disability. Was that your main challenge or were there other challenges that you faced like learning wise around your dyslexia?

Oladoyin Idowu: Yes. So for me, the way I experienced dyslexia includes even hearing sounds. You know, phonological awareness. You know, so I struggled phonological awareness at the beginning. So I had to learn, you know, and that took me a while to learn, but I eventually learned it. I also struggled with, so of course, you know, if you even do structured literacy when there’s an issue with you know, phonological awareness, things like spelling, writing, you know, all of that. So it took me a moment before I was able to finally acquire those skills.

And then I also found that if I’m trying to learn something I have to really focus. And you know, I cannot work with sound around me. I have to like use the entirety of my brain to try to, you know, process words. So auditory processing takes a lot of my energy.

And then sometimes as well with comprehension. Comprehension is dependent on the context of what I’m learning and how it is taught. So those are like the ways in which that, you know, I expressed dyslexia.

Until date as an adult, I don’t like to write, just because as much as I can write, writing also requires a lot of brain task for me. So especially if you’re trying to dictate a note or explain in class, I can’t take a note. I have to just listen to you. I can’t do both. If I’m trying to listen to you and write, there’ll be a lot of space and gaps in what I’m writing. Just because I’ll get to a point in what I’m writing that I’m trying to, you know, understand what I’m writing that I would zone out on listening to you while you talked. So, yeah, those are the different ways in which dyslexia, you know, looks like for me.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. I think that’s important for people to understand that it probably impacts individual people in different ways, but there are some common things that are more than just like the reading and spelling that most people tend to think of with dyslexia.

So once you realized that you had dyslexia, like, did you get an official diagnosis and did you return to continue your education after that?

Oladoyin Idowu: Yes. So in 2015, when I discovered dyslexia and, you know, trying to research into what it was, I wanted to know for sure if I was dyslexic. Just because, you know, I’ve spent all these years looking for an identity, and I finally had an identity, and it came with, you know, it was an identity that, you know, the first time I even spoke to my parents about it, they were very reluctant. And again, everything I say now, I say from a place of reflection, but I promise you, if you had asked me in 2016, I was very angry, and I was calling everybody out. But, but now there’s been forgiveness, so there’s been a lot of, you know, all that.

But anyway, so back to them. At the time, I told them that, “I came across this word dyslexia, and I think I might be.” And they were trying to be protective of the fact that, you know, when you label yourself, you know, with a certain condition, especially when it’s stigmatized, they don’t want people to see you a certain way. So they were quick to say, “oh, so I see that you share a lot of symptoms that are attributed to this condition, but maybe don’t call yourself dyslexic,” you know. And, you know, those were, you know, those were their words.

And I was looking for answers. I was looking for professionals who could actually tell me whether or not I was dyslexic. And this also had to be a journey that I had to embark on on my own because my parents didn’t want me to have that kind of label.

And I couldn’t just find anybody in my local communities or anywhere in close proximity in Nigeria who was doing anything about dyslexia. I couldn’t find answers. And that was frustrating for me in itself, because it’s taken me that many years to come to this point. How are you telling me that there is nobody?

So those are some of the things that also ignited my anger. Because, you know, the least you people can do is at least have professionals for me. So in that moment, I just started looking to the international community, who I would say, well, you know, they’ve been very amazing. I love the dyslexia community that we have around the world. They are very accommodating to anybody. As long as you, you know, you’re curious about dyslexia, they will share resources. you know, that could help. So that was what I depended on. So at the time I reached out to International Dyslexia Association. I reached out to Billy Crest in Louisiana and a couple of other people and they were, you know, very kind enough to share with me, you know, resources to, to help. But that was not an official diagnosis, you know, and that was not enough. I was insatiable, I was insatiable because I really wanted like an official diagnosis.

So I didn’t get an official diagnosis until 2019. And this was by someone that I was introduced to by the International Dyslexia Association. 2019, she started her dyslexia organization in Nigeria. And so she had gone to the U. S. Went to IDA and told, told them of her plans to start a dyslexia organization in Nigeria. And they quickly introduced her to this young lady that has, you know, that they’ve been in contact with who was already in Nigeria, you know, talking dyslexia. And she was trained, she had a PhD in education. She had the licensing to do assessment. And so she was the one that did my assessment for me, Dr. Tikolo. So that was when I officially got a diagnosis. But I’ve been advocating since 2016 and officially got an official diagnosis in 2019.

Carolyn Kiel: Oh, wow. You mentioned that before you realized you had dyslexia that you had kind of like dropped out of school and, and stopped with that. Did you decide to continue your education, like with this sort of newfound knowledge of what dyslexia was and how that might, or did it actually apply to you?

Oladoyin Idowu: Yes. So when I started advocacy in 2016, I was talking a lot about, you know, the condition dyslexia and trying to ensure that people understood what it was. But it was out of anger. I like to say that I did not start One Word Africa from a place of structure. I was just angry. And then I would find people who would relate to what I was saying and would reach out to me for answers.

And as you know, no two people experience dyslexia the same way. And so when they would reach out to me for answers, some of them looks like my experience, some of them were similar, but none of it was the same. And and so in trying to find answers for them, I would now have to dig deeper into research on dyslexia.

I started something called the Dyslexia Tribe, which is a support group for adults living with dyslexia. So people who were undiagnosed like myself and had to grow up in the system without knowing who they were and has to, like, face a lot of the secondary conditions, like the bullying, the flogging and all the likes of it. And so, you know, my tribers would always have questions for me and we would always encourage ourselves with the limited knowledge that we had. You know, and that was it.

So I came across people who were also still in the school system, and they were navigating it. And I would oftentimes have, you know, encouraging words for them, you know, encouraging them to persevere, and trying to help them seek ways that they could cope around the lack of accommodation in the Nigerian education system. And one day, I decided to practice what I preached. And I also wanted to be able to learn more in a more structured environment just so that I would, you know, now be able to talk from a place of, place of expertise, as my experience was not enough. You know, not everybody was having the kind of experience that I had.

So in 2017, I decided to go back to school to pursue a degree in psychology. Psychology because, again, the population that I started working with are adults who have grown with their dyslexia undiagnosed. So, the things that I was familiar with were things like self esteem issues, depression, suicidal ideation, you know, drug use, amongst other things. So, those are what I was familiar with as the impact of living with a condition like that. So, to be able to help them, psychology was, you know, the way to go. So, you know, I went and did my undergraduate degree in psychology. And I finished in 2021 and here we are now!

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. Once you learned about dyslexia in 2015, you started, you know, pretty quickly.

And I know you said you sort of started out of, of anger and like this energy to really just, you know, learn more about it and spread more awareness about dyslexia. So you mentioned the organization that you started in, I guess, 2016, so shortly after you learned about dyslexia called One Word Africa Foundation. What kind of things do you do through the foundation?

Oladoyin Idowu: So One Word Africa has been advocacy purely for the past eight years. And we have navigators through different, different different times. So with One World Africa, when I started again, you know, I’m like a broken record on this, no structure. I was just talking about it. But as I spoke about it, people reached out to me to learn more about it. I was invited as a guest on TV, radio, and I was very happy to, you know, speak about this condition, just because in a place like Nigeria, the realities for children was corporal punishment. And Nigeria is also a very highly religious environment, so they will oftentimes think that it’s a spiritual problem. So I needed to start very quickly. There was no time to put structure in place. I just needed to talk about it.

So in talking about it, it became a community of people. And so what, what was built out of the One World African Foundation was the Dyslexia Tribe, which is mental health focused, which is like a community of people living with dyslexia, like have a tribe. And that also came from the fact that I didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere before I had dyslexia. And finally, I could find my tribe members. So that, you know, that’s what informed the name.

So One Word Africa fully is advocacy or was fully advocacy. But what this looks like was we did teacher trainings. We did trainings in schools. We did trainings for parents on the basics of dyslexia. I used to call it the Know Dyslexia Campaign. That’s K N O W, for people to know about dyslexia. And the Know Dyslexia Campaign was, you know, going everywhere in the community to talk about dyslexia, but leaving people with some bit of tips on how they can identify it and some of the things that it can do to help a child who or a person who had, you know, that kind of condition. So I’ve done that for the past eight years and recently looked at analytics that says that it accept over 350,000 people in Africa, you know.

But now I’m at the point where we’re transitioning into providing formalized support, you know, where we can fully consult for parents, fully consult for schools, counsel, and, you know, people one on one you know, that’s what we’re transitioning into now. But it was fully advocacy.

So yeah, that’s, that’s it. I feel like I’ve lost what you asked me. I hope I answered the question.

Carolyn Kiel: No, you did. I’m just thinking about how, you know, in a short amount of time, you really went from a situation where there was very, it sounds like very low awareness of dyslexia or very low understanding of dyslexia in Nigeria, or at least in the community near where you’re living in Nigeria. And really just starting to build that awareness and already moving to support, which is the next key piece. Because I’m thinking back to what you were telling me about your school experience and basically having no support. And then you working now to build in, you know, support for parents and support with schools.

And, and like, what, what does that support look like? I’m just curious to see like what, you know, what kind of supports help.

Oladoyin Idowu: For me, I’m very passionate about building an ecosystem at different levels. So as someone who has a lived experience of dyslexia, I have been in different, I’ve been, I’ve been dyslexic as a child, I’m dyslexic as an adult, who has left the school environment, who is in the workplace and society, and you know, I see some of the things that are lacking and all of those things, so all of this has informed my approach to, you know, intervention or even advocacy in itself, which, which includes or which insists or which demands rather that we should have an ecosystem at different level. Which is why at the core of what I do as well, I do not just think we should tackle academic issues. I feel like we should have an holistic approach to it where we’re providing support for mental well being while we also tackle academic issues, when we provide support even for parents and teach them on how to support their dyslexic learners.

We also know that caregivers also, you know, they get some frustration, you know, they have, they have helps that they need, right? So in, in that, in that in that space, we try to provide holistic support for caregivers where we teach them how to care for their dyslexic learners. But also how to care for themselves, right?

And this also extends even to educators. When we train educators on dyslexia, on the academic parts of it, structured literacy, we also have, you know, topics in the curriculum that involves things like inclusive classroom, how to ensure your classroom is, is, is not it’s not a bullying zone, you know. How to teach classmates about dyslexia and empathy.

We have a program called the Dyslexia Ally Program, and that’s the program for children, even. It’s a program designed for children. Because oftentimes when we do advocacy, we focus on the adults, focus on equipping the adults. But I remember when I was in school that, you know, my classmates were also perpetrators of bullying, you know, because they didn’t understand the condition. So now we have the Dyslexia Ally Program, which is a program that is supposed to foster allyship amongst colleagues, classmates, and teach them about empathy and dyslexia.

So we go schools to schools, teach children about dyslexia. Nothing too complicated, just in a way that they can understand that, oh, so I have this classmate who may, you know, struggle, and this is the ways to show kindness to that classmate.

So it’s ecosystem at different levels for me, ecosystems of support at different levels for me, where we equip children, we equip the adults, we equip everybody, so that there’s a consciousness around the condition and in anything that you design as a solution, there is inclusion at the end of it. So that’s the way I think through, you know, the solutions that I provide.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. Yeah, really holistic. You’re, you’re working with everybody in that person’s community, like the school and the parents and the caregivers and the, the peers and friends and, and themselves, of course. Wow. Yeah, that’s, that’s really great. Really really strong support. Awesome.

You mentioned that when talking about dyslexia and supporting people with dyslexia, it’s not just about academics, that there’s a huge mental health component as well. And through you sharing your own story, it’s very clear how, you know, your experience in school impacted your mental health. What other kind of connections do you see between a learning disability like dyslexia and mental health? And you know, how did you start noticing those connections?

Oladoyin Idowu: So when I discovered the field of dyslexia, I mentioned to you that first population that I worked, worked with were adults who had lived with the condition undiagnosed. So you will find that in Dyslexia Tribe meetings when everybody starts to introduce themselves and their struggle with learning, the bulk of the conversation trickled into how, you know, for instance, they were trying to build focus while trying to read, and that was their introductions to drugs, because there is this idea that when you stimulate yourself with psychoactive substances, it would help you focus better and read better and comprehend, which is a fallacy that is popular, but when people are vulnerable, they would do whatever it is they need to do to cope, right? So that’s, that’s one of the components of it, the drug use, because you feel like it would help you learn.

Another component of it is self esteem, which is the biggest component of it. The fact that, you know, inability to learn will make you feel like you’re not good enough, you’re not smart, and then you start to develop, you know, learned helplessness, where you do not even feel the need to try anymore, because you already know that if you try, you’re gonna fail anyway. And that impacts your growth mindset, where you’re just comfortable in being in a space and the space is not necessarily, you know, helping you, you’re not driving in it, but you have tried and it did not work out. So you don’t see the need to try anymore, right? You know, those are some of the things that happened. So the self esteem trickles into multiple things.

I did a dissertation that I published on the relationship between dyslexia, psychological distress, and academic self efficacy. And what this was exploring was how, because of, you know, your condition dyslexia, how this trickles into psychological distress, and impacts your academic self efficacy, where you don’t trust yourself to be able to learn because you don’t think that you have the capacity to do so.

And so this familiarity with failure. And when people also fail, they tend to apply that to themselves. You know, if you fail in an exam, yes, the exam did not go right, but do not make it seem as it is, you know, it’s a sense, you know, I’m doubling a lot of words right now, but do not make it feel like it’s you, it’s internal, that there’s something, you know, wrong with you. Yes, this did not go well, but you are not abnormal. You’re not stupid. Do not think of yourself in the negative light. You know, it’s just those different components of it.

This also trickles down into the fact that because you already have a sense of worthlessness, you would also go into, as you grow as an adult, you would lack boundaries. You grow into relationships accepting anything, just because already at the foundation of your thoughts for yourself, you don’t think that you are good enough. That’s why I’m very passionate about the mental health link to dyslexia. There’s also research that has shown us that, you know, the prison pipeline when it comes to conditions like dyslexia, you know, is very high, you know. And this comes from the place that you know, you try to learn, you’re unable to learn, but you need to survive, so juvenile delinquencies, you know, things like that. You know, it’s, it’s a, it’s a vicious circle. And we pay attention to academics, which is great, but we should not isolate the mental health path.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, that’s really important. And from some of the dyslexia advocates I’ve spoken with in the United States, I recognize a lot of the same themes that you’re talking about, like, you know, the, the prison populations actually in the United States, have a very, people there have a very high percentage of dyslexia, and it’s not something that people connect. But it’s like, oh, you know, if you drop out of school, you don’t have as many options anymore. And you might, you know, fall into the wrong crowd, or you might feel a sense of worthlessness, or you might have mental health challenges, or like all of these things compounding. So, yeah, it’s really important to not only address that academic piece, but to really look at the whole ecosystem and mental health.

So, yeah, Oladoyin, you’re doing really amazing work in Nigeria, and even in just a short amount of time, really helping to raise awareness about dyslexia and build in those supports. How can people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about the type of work that you’re doing?

Oladoyin Idowu: My social media handle, which is onewordafrica on Instagram and Twitter, and even on Facebook, as well as LinkedIn. And then on my personal page as well, I share a lot of my work. Oladoyin Idowu. That’s on LinkedIn and other media platforms as well. We’re still at the point where we’re transitioning to support. So very soon we will be sharing updates as well as to the different services that we would be providing. But for now, we do a lot of our Know Dyslexia campaign, which is equipping communities with the knowledge of dyslexia. We do the Dyslexia Ally program, which is fostering allyship amongst peers on dyslexia, and then we have our Dyslexia Tribe, which is in our support group for adults living with dyslexia, but very soon we’re going to be incorporating you know, trainings, consultations, which we’ve done in the past, but informally, not informally, actually, but not structured. We, it wasn’t that structured. That’s the word. So now we want to put proper structure into place and even launch LMS systems, where people can actually take courses and learn the proper ways on how to support a dyslexic person holistically.

I’m very big on holistic care. So if you check our curriculum, you would see you know, inclusion, you would see psychological first aid. It’s holistic and it’s very important that it is holistic.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s awesome. And I can include a link to your social media or to One Word Africa so people can learn about that. I’ll put the link in the show notes.

As we close out, is, is there anything else that you’d like our listeners to know or any ways that they can help or support the type of work that you do?

Oladoyin Idowu: Not at the moment. We’re at the, at the middle of relaunching and restructuring, so I do not have that many needs at the moment. Resources would always be nice. Resources can be anything. You know, access to research. Access to, you know, network as well for people that would help promote the work.

One of the things that we’re hoping to do this year is collaborate with a lot of international organizations because there’s a lot, there’s still a big research gap in Nigeria. I’ve done a paper on dyslexia that has been published. I’m currently in the middle of writing another paper. But it’s still a gap. Like, a wide gap in research. So we’re looking forward to even at some point, I may want to, you know, maybe even travel to another community, maybe the US, for instance, to learn about how it’s done there and see how much of it I can bring back home.

So anyone who has insight as to you know, these resources might be useful for your work, please send it my way. I’m always big on learning. Any courses as well that, you know, anyone thinks would be, would be nice. I’m really always big on learning. Because my point of development right now, so I’m ingesting as much resources as I can.

Carolyn Kiel: That’s great. Okay, wonderful. So, yeah, you know, if you’re listening and you have any great resources that you’d like to share, please, please get in touch.

So yeah, thank you so much, Oladoyin, it was really great talking with you and thank you for sharing your story and for all of the great work that you’re doing for dyslexia awareness and support in Nigeria.

Oladoyin Idowu: Thank you so much, Carolyn. It was very lovely talking to you on here. I had a good time.

Carolyn Kiel: It was great talking with you too. Thank you.

Carolyn Kiel: Thanks for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help me spread the word about this podcast. Share it with a friend, give it a shout out on your social media, or write a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of my episodes and sign up for my free newsletter at Beyond6seconds.net. Until next time.