Temi Badru is the Founder of Voices and Forces Communications. She is also the producer of Against All Odds Docuseries and the convener of Against All Odds events. Martin Luther King Jr said: “No work is insignificant. All labour that uplifts humanity has dignity”. Against All Odds docuseries demonstrates the truth behind this statement, showcasing people who turn their adversity to strengths by hard work and consistency. In this interview with Daily Trust Saturday, Badru explains what motivated the first episode of the series and what to expect in future.
What is the documentary ‘Against All Odds’ all about?
‘Against All Odds’ is a desire to tell stories. Stories of resilience and people who are doing things against all odds. People who are doing amazing things. I just want to tell stories, because I realized that we look up to people.
We find people who are exceptional in their fields, but we don’t know what is behind the scenes. We don’t know the stories. We just think they got there. ‘Against all odds’ is about telling their stories. How did they get there? What were the challenges they had?
On Wednesday, we premiered Episode 1 of the Docuseries ‘Against All Odds’ tagged ‘I Am Woman’ in Abuja, and it was about a female carpenter, who is a widow. After she lost her husband, she had to turn to carpentry because she couldn’t get a white-collar job. And that is the kind of story we want to tell; male, female, different people who are rising against all. That’s what the docuseries is about.
We brought together speakers, who shared their stories and I was so inspired. So, it’s about rising against all odds, despite the challenges, the resilience that people have. The idea is to inspire other people, and to celebrate the people who are telling their stories.
What were the challenges you faced while shooting the documentary?
There were so many challenges. For example, we had to travel to go shoot the documentary. We shot it in Lagos. Lagos traffic was terrible. Getting to the place to shoot the documentary was not easy. Those were some of the challenges, but we thank God, we were able to scale through, we’ve produced it, and we’ve also premiered it.
What are your future plans?
Subsequently, we will tell other stories. We started out with the episode called ‘I Am Woman’. We would have other stories where we would tell stories of other women. We would also tell stories of men who are rising against odds. We would look at all kinds of people with different challenges. I would look forward and I expect everyone also to look forward to much more coming in terms of more documentaries and stories; all centred on resilience. And we’ll be telling stories of resilience through different forms. It could be a docuseries. We would also be leveraging social media and interviews to tell these stories.
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What advice do you have for upcoming entrepreneurs looking to venture into what you are doing?
I would say hang in there. You are not alone, because there is a sense in which we feel as though we’re the only ones in the world going through the challenge. For example, the woman whose story premiered on Wednesday, when she lost her husband and was left with three children, she felt like the only one.
But today, she’s risen above the circumstance. She’s comfortable, she’s training other people. So, my advice would be: don’t give up. Hang in there. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. If you hear from other people, you’ll see that they’re going through so many things.
Another advice is that upcoming entrepreneurs should have a community. Have a support system. Have people who would encourage you. People who would tell you it’s okay to cry, but don’t stop at crying, move up and do something. So, have people who would also share ideas and information with you.
Surround yourself with people who would inspire and support you. They may not give you money, but they can give you information. They can give you encouragement, they can motivate you. So, find the right people and surround yourself with them. That will be amazing, and also trust God because that’s what I’ve seen from these stories. And looking at my own story, I’ve learned to trust God as well.
What do you hope viewers would take away from the documentary?
Having watched this documentary, I hope that viewers would be encouraged that no matter the challenges they’re going through, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. I hope that they will be inspired to keep going and I hope that very soon, we will share their own stories.
