2016 SPUC Youth Conference Speakers: Part II
Posted by Rhoslyn Thomas on 2 February 2016
The 2016 Youth Conference (11-13th March) is an opportunity to hear from some truly inspirational pro-life speakers! Here we take a look at three of them:
Obianuju Ekeocha
Obianuju (Uju) Ekeocha is a force to be reckoned with.
In the past year alone, Uju has visited 8 countries and 20 cities, where she has lobbied, debated and many times succeeded in the defense of human life. All this, whilst working full-time in the UK as a bio-medical scientist.
She began her career in the pro-life movement in the summer of 2012, when she saw that Melinda Gates was holding her famous contraception conference in London. Uju turned on her TV and saw that the African continent was being presented as a place where contraception and a curb in the number of children being born was desperately needed, and supposedly wanted, by African mothers themselves. This attitude was completely foreign to Uju, born and bred in Nigeria. The Africa she knows and loves celebrates and welcomes children.
"Babies are a symbol of hope"
Uju penned an open letter to Melinda Gates, in which she said:
"I trained and worked for almost five years in a medical setting in Africa, yet I never heard of the clinical term "postpartum depression" until I came to live in Europe. I never heard it because I never experienced or witnessed it, even with the relatively high birth rate around me. (I would estimate that I had at least one family member or close friend give birth every single month. So I saw at least 12 babies born in my life every year.)
Amidst all our African afflictions and difficulties, amidst all the socioeconomic and political instabilities, our babies are always a firm symbol of hope, a promise of life, a reason to strive for the legacy of a bright future.
…a few weeks ago I stumbled upon the plan and promise of Melinda Gates to implant the seeds of her "legacy" in 69 of the poorest countries in the world (most of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa).
Her pledge is to collect pledges for almost $5 billion in order to ensure that the African woman is less fertile, less encumbered and, yes, she says, more "liberated." With her incredible wealth she wants to replace the legacy of an African woman (which is her child with the legacy of "child-free sex."
Culture of Life Africa
Uju later established Culture of Life Africa, which takes its name from this quote from St John Paul II:
"Culture of life means respect for the nature and protection of God's work of creation. In a special way, it means respect for human life from the first moment of conception until its natural end."
Culture of Life Africa "…is an initiative dedicated to the promotion and propagation of the Gospel of Life in Africa through the dissemination of good information, sensitisation and education.
"It is a response to the disturbing encroachment of the bold and wealthy proponents of the Culture of Death, as well as the unbelievable cultural pressure that is beginning to erode and alter the trajectory of the African cultural values of life, marriage, motherhood, family and faith.
"For Africa, the threat of the Culture of Death is now real and imminent as we are beginning to see the undeniable attempts to limit, suppress and even destroy the source of human life. This is coming into Africa in the form of population control measures being emphatically proposed, promoted and propagated from one nation to the next."
Gabriele Kuby
Gabriele Kuby is a German writer and sociologist who has studied and critiqued aspects of the sexual revolution, spotlighting its impact on human dignity.
She recently published in English The Global Sexual Revolution: The Destruction of Freedom in the Name of Freedom, in which she argues that a new understanding of human nature and sexuality is undermining families, children and the common good and making way for totalitarian political practices. Her recent talks around Europe have addressed the dangers of 'gender ideology' as well as addressing the effects of sex education programmes on children.
Kuby recently told an interviewer that, "Personally, the deepest motivation in my life is truth ... I just have to say the truth ... if children are sexualised it destroys their sense of shame, their relationship with their parents, their relationship in general to authority, and it destroys their relationship with God. They tell us gender mainstreaming is about 'tolerance', but it's really about changing us as human beings."
Defender of human dignity
A firm believer in the importance of a consistent pro-life ethic and tireless writer and campaigner, Gabriele Kuby has made numerous media appearances in her native Germany and is a much-valued commentator on the European political scene.
SPUC is delighted to host such a skilled and committed defender of human dignity at our annual Youth Conference.
Fiorella Nash
Fiorella Nash, SPUC writer and researcher, read English at New Hall College, Cambridge, and went on to complete an MPhil in Medieval and Renaissance Writing, specialising in the English verse of metaphysical poet Robert Southwell.
After graduating, Fiorella moved into the emerging field of bioethics and has spent over ten years with us at SPUC, researching cutting edge bioethical issues from a feminist perspective.
She makes regular appearances at both national and international conferences and has appeared on radio and in print discussing issues such as abortion, gendercide, maternal health and commercial surrogacy. Alongside her bioethics research, Fiorella is an award-winning novelist and has published numerous books and short stories under the nom-de-plume Fiorella De Maria.
Books
Her most recent novel, Do No Harm, looked at some of the ethical dilemmas facing medical professionals in contemporary Britain and was described by critics as "a biopsy of the sickness of late Western society." Her fifth novel, We’ll Never Tell Them, was published by Ignatius Press in Autumn 2015.
Fiorella’s next book will be a collection of her pro-life talks and papers and will be entitled, The Abolition of Woman.
Catch up on our first 3 speakers here, and come back next week for the final 3 speakers on our programme!