Built to Belong

Built to Belong: Stephanie Egharevba's Fight to Make Inclusion Real

Read more at:
https://mastercardfdn.org/en/what-we-do/impact-stories/built-to-belong-stephanie-egharevbas-fight-to-make-inclusion-real/

Stephanie Egharevba  is a passionate advocate for diversity, inclusion, and disability rights in Lagos, Nigeria. A wheelchair user who defies anyone to present a challenge she can’t overcome, Stephanie says her legs don’t work, but her mouth does.

“Anxiety doesn’t see me coming. I’m never anxious about speaking in front of a crowd,” she says.

But her eloquence didn’t happen by accident—it’s the result of a life lived with both resilience and purpose. “You’re not wrong,” she laughs when asked how she came across so confidently at a recent conference. “I’ve been sitting behind a microphone since I was eight.” That’s largely thanks to her mother encouraging her to recite Bible verses in front of the entire church congregation from a young age. Still, it wasn’t until recently that this 23-year-old dynamo made it professional.

Her commitment to disability inclusion, however, came not from a single defining moment but was forged through years of being overlooked, ignored, and unheard - from a lifetime of accumulated silences. “There are certain rooms I’ve entered that weren’t built for people like me. Certain events that didn’t even consider us.” The exclusion, she explains, wasn’t always overt—sometimes it was architectural, and sometimes it was attitudinal. But always, it was a signal.

Read more at:
https://mastercardfdn.org/en/what-we-do/impact-stories/built-to-belong-stephanie-egharevbas-fight-to-make-inclusion-real/