Bio: Olutosin lives in Lagos, Nigeria. When she was just four, her father died leaving her mother to raise her and her three sisters. Due to male-dominated land ownership laws, her illiterate mother eventually lost their house in Owo and they set out for a new beginning. Nigeria is a country where 10 out of 36 Nigerian states have laws allowing husbands to use physical force against their wives, literacy for women is 60.5% and the life expectancy for women is 48.5 years. (Source: Women for Women International website).  Olutosin rose above her circumstances to graduate from University and become the founder and CEO of Stop the Abuse of Rights (STAR), an NGO in Lagos, Nigeria. STAR is educating women and children on their rights as citizens and training women to produce and sell high quality, durable goods. She knows that the fastest way to achieve progress is to empower women to rise from poverty and be their own agents of change. 

Her Vision:  Olutosin hopes that within one year her business will be selling the high quality and durable products made by the women the institute trains to national and international markets. She dreams that this will generate the money needed to have an office from which to work and purchase a piece of land in Lagos on which to educate, train, and empower women. She hopes that within one year she will have trained 500 women and children and be in a position to employ at least ten women; each paid a salary that ensures their financial stability and independence and their family’s well-being and comfort. Olutosin wants progress for women, children and for all of Nigeria and she knows the best way to do this is by helping women, and therefore their families, rise from poverty and be agents of change.  

Please consider supporting Olutosin and the other women entrepreneurs of AWE by making a donation to our Advancing Women Entrepreneurs program. 100% of donations support the women directly through business training, technology stipends, equipment and grants.