Living With HIV and AIDS

World Aids Day, 1st December, is a worldwide campaign to promote HIV awareness, fight stigma and discrimination and share important information about HIV. A huge part of the campaign is also to support and encourage HIV testing, promote treatment, support those living with HIV and AIDS and remember those we have lost.   World AIDS […]

22 Black Women In The North East To Celebrate This Black History Month

Another year another Black History Month that is once again full of events, conferences and celebrations to mark the awesome and amazing black people we have in our communities. Black people who day in and day out continue to make Britain what is it today, but seldom get a mention. Like in the first blog […]

Announcing ‘Teakisi Woman Talk’ – 2022 Speakers!

We hope that you have your calendars marked, because we’re only a little over a week away from the 4th Teakisi Woman Talk – our annual Black History Month conference. Community organisations and members of the public will be heading to The Common Room to join us on a much needed discussion on Inclusive Communities For All, which is […]

Unapologetically African

I spent half of last Saturday in one of the most beautiful buildings in Newcastle, The Catalyst – a beacon for data and healthy ageing innovation. Just a seven-minute walk from St James Metro station in the centre of Newcastle, The Catalyst is one of the best venues for all manner of events. One thing that […]

Be a Friend Not An Enemy

“Each age comes with its pressures” were my mother’s words a few years back. Back then, this quote did not make sense but fast forward to the present, and the quote with only six words speaks volumes. There was a stage in my life when my peers and I believed that the best thing that […]

Aminata Alice Yajoh, Visual and Performing Artist

Aminata Alice Yajoh is a self-taught artist from the Gambia. She is in her early twenties and a School of Public Health graduate of The Gambia College. Aminata is one of the country’s few promising women in a male-dominated art community. Her paintings portray her life and experiences, feelings, and many more. She considers herself […]

Nepotism

Will I be disappointed if I am rejected before entering the interview room? Yes. Will I, however, find solace in the fact that the position was never mine to begin with? Definitely. Will I possibly undermine the skill and intelligence of the individual who profited from pulling a few strings? Maybe yes, maybe no… As the […]

In The Stillness I Wept

“One minute I am floating, and the next minute it feels like I have been hit by a bus.” These are the words I told my therapist the first time I visited her a few months ago. I was hurt and hopeless, and although I hoped that the pain would go away, I had learnt […]

Cohabitation, The New Normal We Must Learn More About

I’ll start today with a story, one told by a friend. There’s this mental health group where people talk about the essential aspects of life and the things to watch out for, and it’s from here, the topic of cohabitation came up. This started like a piece of advice that a law student brought up […]

Conversations About Mental Health

In the last couple of years, I would say mental health has been one of the most addressed issues, and that’s a milestone I am glad to witness. But although this has been the case, there’s still more that desires to be done. Mental health is a condition that the majority of Africans have labelled […]

Toxic Traits

There’s a reason why the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. We all have at least one single behavioral feature that we despise (if we’re aware of it), and, surprisingly enough, we can typically figure out where we got it from provided it’s not a distant cousin, else one of our parents can tell […]

Uncertainty

As I wrapped up my leadership and mindset change programme in December 2021, I drew an action matrix, which had things I was going to implement this year. Being the kind of things I’m passionate about, I thought it would be a bit easy but I was wrong. I forgot that something new was going […]