Mana Shah - Facilitator

5 December was a special day for my organization--The International Volunteer Day-- a day to celebrate the efforts and impact made by volunteers! We supported the celebrations five states across in Nigeria including Lagos. Given all the madness that comes with getting 20 NGOs to work together, we somehow managed to pull off the program. Attended by about 160 individuals & organizations, 21 media reps; we got the fabulous Crowne Troupe of Africa to perform a hilarious however brutally real dance drama. The highlight for me personally was when we awarded six volunteers Recognition Awards , it was the first time such awards were being presented in Nigeria (so I think!) . A couple of volunteers also shot a video taking glimpses of the events and interviews with the organizations, volunteers and media--which should add to developing the first documentary on national volunteering in Nigeria! Though my anxiety levels were shooting the roof, the onsite volunteers were agile, attentive...

Osogbo in its heyday, was the flourishing centre of the Osogbo School of Art , a movement which started in the 1960s. It has attracted and produced many internationally acclaimed artists. We visited two prominent art galleries. The first was a two-storey belonging to Nike Davies . It had a dazzling collection of paintings, sculptures, woodworks, clothes, bronze work which were obviously prized for the the expat's budget! It mirrored the vibrancy and ethnicity of Nike's house cum gallery in Lagos. The second one we visited was the home cum gallery of Chief Jimoh Buraimoh, the inventor of the bead paintings! One of the paintings we all fell in love with was priced at Naira 500,000! It took us a while to convince them that we were volunteers with little money! Luckily for us the Chief was home and we had a nice chat with him about his works and life in Osogbo. We were actually also staying in his hotel. The home visit got us an invitation to a special program that evening...

The quiet town of Osogbo in Osun State (about four hours north of Lagos) is world renowned for two things: its vibrant art galleries and the serene Sacred Groves . It has been on my travel agenda since I came to Nigeria and finally with some other VSO volunteers, we finally managed to go! As the name suggests, the 75-acre Osun Sacred Groves is a cool green oasis is adorned with sculptures and shrines of Yoruba deities, particularly the river Goddess Osun (Mother of Osogbo) who according to legend, promised the protection of the town. The area of the forest was home to early settlers and founders of Osogbo 400 years ago where the history of the town was recorded. Each sculpture and shrine created by local and international artists (primarily Austrian Susanne Wenger settled in Nigeria since the 50s) represents the activities, lives and preoccupations of the Gods and Goddesses of the Groves. The forest was declared a world heritage site in 2005 by UNESCO. The annual Osun Fe...