"My grandmother taught me that giving is a lifestyle. It's a culture, it's a way of life... it was in how she lived her life, how she lives her life, because she's still alive."

That last clause is the whole episode.

Moyo Aladesuyi's grandmother is 93 and can still be asked. Wendy Ayoola's died in 2025, and the scale of what she had given away only became clear when the testimonies arrived at her funeral.

Moyo and her sister recently sat their grandmother down and asked her how she got her first job and how she met their grandfather, and found out a great deal they did not know. Her argument is that we forget our grandparents were once young, once hustlers, once professionals, once leaders. Wendy's grandmother stocked food she never intended to eat and bought the expensive bags to put it in, because she wanted whatever she gave to feel special.

Two young Nigerian professionals, two remarkable grandmothers, and one difference between them that decides everything.

#GoGrandma is the first series of the WomenGive Podcast, from the GivingTuesday Africa Hub, part of the Grandmothers of Generosity campaign.

Join the movement: https://tinyurl.com/GivingTuesdayAfrica

Subscribe to our newsletter: https://givingtuesdayafrica.substack.com/

For more enquiries email us at [email protected]

Used across Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Afripods.

"She was so intentional about her giving that she would purchase fancy polythene and paper bags instead of the regular ones because she wanted whatever she gave to feel special."

Wendy Ayoola's grandmother stocked her house with food she never intended to eat, then bought the expensive bags to put it in. Our sector writes whole strategies about dignity. She solved it with packaging.

Chief Ezinwa Maria Selin Umelu was the first female title holder in Nkwere, Imo State. She owned property and ran businesses before she married. For decades she gave to drivers, workers, families she established, and people she put through school, and almost none of it was recorded anywhere.

Wendy is a business analyst at CPCS in Abuja and a former data analyst at the Rural Electrification Agency. Her working life is spent making contributions legible, building the systems that capture what an intervention did and for whom. The largest giving operation she has ever witnessed existed in no dataset at all.

In this episode she talks about packaging as dignity, about resources that are meant to flow through you rather than to you, and about why leadership that is quiet is still leadership.

#GoGrandma is the first series of the WomenGive Podcast, from the GivingTuesday Africa Hub, part of the Grandmothers of Generosity campaign.

Join the movement: https://tinyurl.com/GivingTuesdayAfrica

Subscribe to our newsletter: https://givingtuesdayafrica.substack.com/

For more enquiries email us at [email protected]

"My grandmother taught me that giving is a lifestyle. It's a culture. It's a way of life."

Moyo Aladesuyi says none of it came from instruction. Her grandmother never sat her down to explain giving. She just lived, and Moyo watched.

Episode three of #GoGrandma is our first youth voice. Moyo is an educator, communicator and children's author, and she is the receiving end of everything this series keeps arguing about. We can talk all we like about grandmothers as civic infrastructure. Moyo is the evidence that it works, walking around, running projects and writing books.

Her grandmother is Jumoke Kukoyi, known in the family as Mommy Agba. She is 93, she was a government worker, then a tailor, then a small-scale trader, and she has opened her house to the community every 26 December for as long as Moyo can remember.

Then comes the sharpest thing a young person has said to us about older women: we forget that our grandparents were once young, once hustlers, once professionals, once leaders. Old age, Moyo says, has just come to cover up a lot of things.

WomenGive is a standalone podcast spun out of UbuntuGiving, dedicated to women as resource holders and movement builders across Africa. #GoGrandma is part of the Grandmothers of Generosity campaign from the GivingTuesday Africa Hub. GivingTuesday is 1 December 2026.

Join the movement: https://tinyurl.com/GivingTuesdayAfrica

Subscribe to our newsletter: https://givingtuesdayafrica.substack.com/

Email us: [email protected]

"And I'll tell you, my first funder was a grandmother, right?"We asked Chinonso Clark where she sees grandmothers acting as funders in African giving traditions. She did not reach for a statistic. She told us about the 85-year-old woman who looked at what she was building across several countries and put her own money behind it before any institution did.In episode two of #GoGrandma, the first series of the WomenGive Podcast, we move older women from beneficiary to funder, where they have always belonged.Chinonso is CEO and founder of Lead for Good Africa and founder of The W3 Global Mission. She came to this conversation with a specific irritation, and it turned out to be the most useful thing she brought: the word "beneficiary" does not just describe a relationship, it decides what you go looking for, and therefore what you find.We talk about grandmothers as an institution with experience, network, wisdom and resources, what resourcing grandmother led generosity actually requires, how it could be written into social protection policy, and the first move any funder should make before designing anything.WomenGive is a standalone podcast spun out of UbuntuGiving, dedicated to women as resource holders and movement builders across Africa. #GoGrandma is part of the Grandmothers of Generosity campaign from the GivingTuesday Africa Hub. GivingTuesday is 1 December 2026.Join the movement: https://tinyurl.com/GivingTuesdayAfricaSubscribe to our newsletter: https://givingtuesdayafrica.substack.com/Email us: [email protected]

"Sometimes the clearest evidence of a person's contribution is the vacuum their absence is creating."

We asked Damilola Adebonojo why older women's contributions to civil society have stayed so invisible in the evidence. She began by challenging the question. A lack of evidence, she argues, is not a lack of contribution. It is a question of where we are looking, and what we have decided counts as proof.

In the opening episode of #GoGrandMa, the first series of the WomenGive Podcast, we ask what changes when we stop treating grandmothers as the edges of civil society and start seeing them as its centre.

Damilola, also known as Iya Yoruba, founded Alamoja Languages and YorubaTexts, and her doctoral research at the University of Georgia recovers early Yoruba women writers left out of literary histories.

We talk about continuity and trust as things institutions struggle to manufacture, grandmothers as living archives, why organisations start in the wrong place, and the one question any leader can ask their community this week.

#GoGrandMa is part of the Grandmothers of Generosity campaign from the GivingTuesday Africa Hub. GivingTuesday is 1 December 2026.

Join the movement: https://tinyurl.com/GivingTuesdayAfrica

Newsletter: https://givingtuesdayafrica.substack.com/

Email: [email protected]

For International Women’s Day, we continue to celebrate the women who inspire us, challenge us, and push us to be better. In this heartfelt voice note, Stella Aiecheng Odiambo honors her high school deskmate, Karimi, whose fearless defiance of limitations reshaped Stella’s view of the world.

It’s a story of friendship, courage, and the power of standing up against societal constraints. Because sometimes, all it takes is one person’s boldness to change the course of another’s life.

A Mother’s Healing Presence
For Wedson, his mother’s love is more than just support—it is strength, resilience, and unwavering care.
Through every challenge, she has been there, but one moment stands out—when he was unable to walk due to painful sores. In that difficult time, it was her prayers, care, and strength that carried him through to recovery.
This episode is a powerful reminder of the silent battles mothers fight for their children—the unseen sacrifices, the healing hands, the love that never wavers.

The Power of Humble Leadership

For Uchenna, A successful business leader, a woman whose humility and kindness leaves a lasting impact on his life

As the CEO of multiple ventures, she has achieved great things, but what stands out the most is how she invests her time, supports others, and leads with generosity. Her ability to uplift and mentor others inspires Uchenna to aim higher, work harder, and hope for greater things.

🎧 Listen in to celebrate the women who lead not just with power, but with heart.

For Phina Peters, Pastor Esther Dixon is more than a leader—she is the embodiment of selfless generosity.

Her philosophy? The little she has is not just for her—it’s a seed to give. Even when she has almost nothing, she still chooses to give to others before meeting her own needs. That kind of heart is rare, and it’s what makes her an inspiration.

Beyond generosity, Pastor Esther also integrates faith and business, proving that success is not just about profit—it’s about purpose.

🎙 Podcast Spotlight: The Power of Support
For Peace, the impact of women’s generosity shows up in two powerful ways—through the virtues her mother instilled in her and the everyday acts of support from her younger sister.
Her mother’s teachings shaped the person she is today, and when life got busy, her younger sister stepped in—removing the burden of cooking, grocery shopping, and meal planning, allowing her to focus on her work and be more productive.
This episode is a beautiful reflection on how women uplift each other—not just in grand moments, but in the everyday sacrifices that make life easier.
🎧 Tune in to celebrate the women who support us in ways big and small.