Woman Crush Week: Day 5

Atiewin Mbillah-Lawson

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'The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.' Audrey Hepburn #monthend #welcomeoctober #blessed #happyvibes. . . . . Don’t forget to keep voting by going to the link in my bio. Let’s bring it homeeee💃💃💃💃

A post shared by Atiewin Mbillah-Lawson (@atiewinml) on Sep 30, 2019 at 8:05am PDT

Atiewin Mbillah-Lawson is a Ghanaian broadcast journalist and news anchor.

I’m not one to listen to the news. I know that’s not good, but sometimes it can be so depressing. Hearing of all the tragedies and injustices in our world today negatively affects me and as an empath, I can’t help but feel all the emotions. It’s horrible, I tell you.

However, my feelings towards news changed when I listened to Atiewin on Starr 103.5FM. Though she reported the regular degular news about tragedies, corruption and injustices, the way she did it made listening easier for me.

She’s not your conventional anchor. She doesn’t make everything seem like a drag and add more negativity to the situation. She breathes life into the news. You can hear the vigour in her voice. The passion. The zeal. It’s not a gift many have to be frank with you. She makes the news interesting and manages to not take away from the gravity of the situations at hand.

I find this gift of hers endearing as it engages listeners. They get to know more and more about the world around them and enjoy doing so. There’s nothing better than getting to know more through a medium you love.

Her passion for journalism is evident in the stories she reports which are not only current, but past events too. She produces and reports various news series, (which can be found on her soundcloud account linked at the end) such as ‘Clash of the Elements’, which follows both natural and man-made disasters that took place years back and ‘I Have a Dream’ which covers various Pan-Africanists. Though these stories have been reported in the past, Atiewin reminds us of how far the world has come and what it’s been through. This stops us from making the mistakes that caused things to go wrong and lets us draw inspiration from the individuals that helped with and lived through those times.

With her reports, we all learn something beneficial. Learning never stops when you listen to Atiewin.

Atiewin is like that teacher of subject you may dislike, but their passion and execution makes you love it. It’s a weird feeling, but it’s the best!

As I’ve written about before, the narrative of Africa is often skewed and only tells a negative one-sided story which is unfair. Journalists all over the Africa have the opportunity to change this narrative and create an unbiased story that represents all sides of Africa. Not just one.

Atiewin takes advantage of her God-given gift to change Africa’s story. She reports the good, bad and ugly and lets all her listeners know hat though we may have out issues as Africans/Ghanaians, we have positives too. We shouldn’t be ashamed of our story, but instead do our best to make it better.

You can’t fix a problem without knowing it exists and you won’t be encouraged to fix it unless you know of the good it can add to. That’s the importance of having a balanced story. The good helps the bad to become good and the bad helps the good to become better. That’s why journalists like Atiewin are needed in our society.

Day by day, Atiewin is changing the face of broadcast journalism not only in Ghana, but Africa too. Her work has not gone unnoticed as she has rightfully received a number of accolades.

From Atiewin, we can learn that pursuing our passion can change the world and how others view it. Something as simple as switching on a microphone, as Atiewin does, has impacted many lives (though I’m sure there’s more to it than switching on a microphone)

If we all follow our passion and stick with it regardless of the difficulties we may face, we have the power to change the world just as Atiewin is changing the face of news and Africa.

Atiewin’s impact on me, on Ghana and on Africa through her writing and reporting is life changing. Without people like her, we’d all be as good as ignorant and that’s why she is my Woman Crush today!