At the IMF World Bank Meetings, Naide Obiang shares how African women in the diaspora are shaping peace and community impact worldwide.
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Show Notes:
In this Mission Matters episode, Adam Torres interviews Naide Obiang, Founder of OBvision, during the IMF World Bank Meetings in Washington, D.C. Naide discusses how African women in the diaspora can be key catalysts for peace building and community development. Through OBvision, she champions communication, collaboration, and empowerment to create lasting social impact across borders.
About Naide Obiang
Naïde Pavelly Obiang is from Gabon and Congo and lives in Maryland. A natural communicator—she talks, she talks, she talks—that’s why she writes.
A radio broadcaster, Naïde holds a BS in Communications from the University of Maryland–College Park and a MS in Peace & Conflict Studies from the University of North Carolina–Greensboro. Her areas of interest are in education and the empowerment of sub-Saharan women.
Mr. Denzel Washington once said, “Don’t just aspire to make a living. Aspire to make a difference.” Naïde prays that her work adds value to the growth and success of her community and encourages many women like her to dare to challenge their challenges.
About OBVision
Inspiration by OB mainly provides creative and motivational writing that aims to celebrate and empower the African woman within the diaspora, by targeting social issues to inspire her to turn her own ideas into positive life-transforming actions.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, today I am doing an interview with Nide Obion, who is a founder of OB Vision, and this interview is part of our IMF World Bank.
Coverage series where we bring you the best of what’s going on at the meetings over in Washington DC and today what? October 16th. First thing, first, Nide, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you for having me, Adam. All right. So I’m excited to get into OB Vision and get into what you’re doing with peace building and just, overall on the African continent, and talk about how.
And women in the diaspora can really be catalyst for peace building and regardless of what’s going on in terms of, financial stability or uncertainty. So I wanna get into all of that of course. But before we do, how’s Washington DC treating you right now?
Like, what’s going on over there? It is busy, it is cold, it is everything. It’s it, it is wonderful. Right? Yeah. It’s a great moment to meet everyone, to see people from different places. So just kind of to step out of your comfort zone and things that you used to. And so yes, but it’s chilly to this week.
This week has been. Crazy meetings after meetings and but we expect that, right? It’s a one week process, so. Mm-hmm. We know usually by tomorrow we’ll be all tired. Mm, I understand. Well better you than me. I know that sounds bad. I know, right? That’s terrible. I know, but somebody gotta do it, right?
We true to be here. So true. So that’s Well Nide. let’s get into OB Vision first thing first. Mm-hmm. I, I see the title founder. Before we get into what you’re doing, like how did you come up with this concept for OB Vision? Right. So this is very tricky and probably, you guessed it, Adam OB comes from my last name, OBR.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then vision is just, what I see how the world was functioning. Mm-hmm. So I wanted to do something more formal, something official, especially being community engaged. So I wanted to have something started. With OB vision. Mm-hmm. Just kind of, it was a leap of faith just to see, now that I’m establishing and then sharing my vision with the world, but also learning from others.
So that’s where the inspiration started was, okay, now that you have this platform and you have those privileges and access to a few things, how can I share it in a more official and formal way? And so how long have you been doing this? How long has it grown? OB vision opened or became official around 2019.
Mm-hmm. So that’s when little by little I started with some books. So I have inspiration books that I have published self-published online, and then just started with my community, going around the community and speaking and speaking engagement and motivating others, but first motivating myself.
So this is where you may be coming back to your first question. Mm-hmm. I had to do a self-reflection work. And when I saw that it was taking me to a different place, I say I’m not going by myself, I will also take my sisters with me anybody that is in the same type of environment. Mm-hmm. I also want to share it.
So it went from self-reflection and sharing an outpouring, and now I’m, like throwing myself into the global international world and NWC where OB vision will take us. Oh, that’s amazing. Let’s get further into what you’re doing now and go further in the overall topic here.
So talking about the African women and the diaspora, and you know, how this can work in peace building. But before we get into that, maybe, I don’t wanna assume everybody understands what that word means and diaspora and as it relates to African women. Maybe start there. Let’s start basic.
Absolutely. And this is, a great question because usually when you live in the bubble, you think everything revolves around that bubble, right? Yeah. So what does diaspora means? African woman. I’m an African, I’m an immigrant. I’m originally from the Republic of Gabon. So I moved here. I was very young.
And then usually the diaspora is you move to a different country. For whatever reason, you have moved there and then you have settled there. Mm-hmm. So you are no longer in your home country. your new home is the place that you have moved in, but you still have interaction with home and your new host country.
That’s what diaspora is. It’s all those who have migrated to a new, different land and they’re living there now. That’s where my focus were was because I realized we African women who have moved away from the continent and who have settled, whether it’s here in the US or in UK or any other in Asia, for example.
We have so much more to give. and that’s what I wanted to expose actually, or bring to the world. Hmm. So how does this relate to peace building? You know, how do you see that role playing out? Absolutely. Great question. Remember at the beginning when I said that it was a, the OB vision became, started as a personal endeavor.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. And then from the personal, we are have now in peace building. I became peacebuilder trained. So I did my bachelor in communication from the University of Maryland College Park. And from there I did my MA in conflict and peace building. Mm. So OBE vision, the work that I do, or what I am really passionate about, it is that intersection between communication, peace building and community engagement.
Mm-hmm. And when I looked at those three, peace building, basically because of the consonant and, mm-hmm. Everybody knows, oh, I don’t want to assume, but yeah. The instability that we have there in Congo, Sudan in Ethiopia. All of that is what is my responsibility as a, a daughter of the continent.
For those conflict. So that’s what drove me to getting into peace building communication is something that I’ve always done. I’ve studied it, I graduated in it. So I really wanted to be in a place where I can share, I can communicate, I can dialogue And community engagement is because I believe in the power of community.
I’m coming from traditions that really value the power of a group. So with that, you put them all together and mm-hmm. And you, get this building into it. Hmm. How do people get involved, like with OB vision and now that you’re expanding this, how do people get involved?
Like, what do you need? how do people advocate? So for right now, this is the, beauty about being in places like IMF and the World Annual meetings because you are able to meet people from different background and get together and then see that you have a common purpose. With OB Vision, we do have a website right now that is under https://www.inspirationbyob.com/ where people can reach out. And then if they want to be involved in community engagements and things that we do. Right now we are in Maryland and DC and Virginia area. So it’s a group. It was me alone and now I’m having some sisters joining little by little. So, but when we get into meetings like the World Bank, we sit down and then we have women, African women from different backgrounds.
Peace building myself, finance digital world, ai econ. And then we say, okay, we have a dilemma. We have a problem. What can we do moving forward now that we can bring all our intellectual power together and all our knowledge, all our experience abroad. Some of us didn’t just, you know, live in America, though there are certain who have some who have lived in Europe first.
Before coming here and other who have lived in Asia before coming here. So when we bring all this experience together, what can we do? And that’s, you know, so the website is there for those who want to reach out. But we are starting, we are talking and, we started to brainstorm and that’s, that’s awesome.
Hmm. That’s amazing. I just love the idea. I love to bring this type of stuff to my audience and I, can’t wait to hear how this continues to evolve and to, and to continue to cover this story. But that being said, if somebody’s listening or watching this and they want to follow up, they wanna learn more, they wanna connect because they weren’t in attendance at the meetings and they like to connect going further, how do they do that?
Okay, so for, because we are still here a participant, you do have the World Bank, you know, website where everything is live inspiration by where I, they can find me. Mm-hmm. But. You know, everything is light. So if they want to join in the force definitely they’ll be able to what is happening here in IMF Live or record it.
They usually post it later on or just reach out to me online and then we’ll go from there. Fantastic. And for everybody listening just so you know, we’ll definitely put some information in the show notes so you can just click on it, head right on over. That being said, if this is your first time listening to this show and you’re a first time listener, love it.
Thank you for joining us. Definitely hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show each and every day, bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And thank you again so much for coming on the show.
It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much, Adam. Thank you. It was a pleasure to be here and I look forward to our next conversation with you in the future. Wonderful future. Alright, thank you.
