All is now set for the Strugz Safe Haven white and barefoot gig in Lagos.
Strugz Safe Haven, a blog and a platform for people to come together, partner, network and share life experiences has concluded arrangements for the second edition of the event in Lagos with the theme ‘letting go of your inhibitions’.
The event billed to hold at the Garden, Wole Olateju crescent, opposite No 2 Tokunbo Omisere street, off Admiralty way, Lekki phase 1 on October 2 promises to be unique and awesome as guests are set for the all white and barefoot event.
Speaking at a media briefing on the upcoming event, Amaka Orakwe, founder of Strugz Safe Haven explained that Strugz Safe Haven is a blog and a platform for people to come together, partner, network and share their experiences.
” We already live in a very hash world and challenging environment, so the main reason strugz.com was founded as a way for people to ease off the everyday stress, whether in-terms of business, career, marriage, relationship, everyday living, life style, for a place to come and speak about anything, share, and nobody will judge you, where you can get solutions to your problems”, she said.
Amaka stated that they have a lot of members that are willing to share their own experiences, talk about their own testimonies which will be done at the event.
She said: “We have guest speakers like Victor Okigbo, Dolapo Kukoyi, people are coming to share their own journey, success stories in terms of their marriages, carriers, how they were able to balance career and family, how they were able to form companies for example the CEO of studio 24, how he was able to start his business and start his career, his studio and how he was able to balance it with marriage life.”
She noted that every of the members of the organising team is very fundamental to Stugz.com, because they have individual businesses and experiences.
Commenting on her reason for choosing white as the dress code for the day, Amaka pointed out that, “white is a beautiful colour, a Virgin colour, being an outdoor even, we wanted something that will blend with the green, with the grass because is an outdoor event, so we chose white because is like a uniform”
She continued that: “When we had meeting with our partners before we chose the theme of the event, we said that people comes in different colours and this is going to take away from the whole purpose of the event, so we chose white so that everybody feels like uniform. White is not a random colour, but safe haven, is something we sat down and deliberated, more so, as par is safe haven and being an outdoor event, that why we chose white and our theme is letting go of your inhibitions, that is why we wanted it to be barefoot, let everybody feel free, let us go and assimilate, interact, learn and share”.
According to her, “the other event we had supposed to end by 1 o’clock but people didn’t leave till 5 o’clock, people had a lot to say, very touching stories, people didn’t want to go that is why we decided to do a second and bigger event, because the first one was amazing for those that were there”.
Amaka stated further that they are partnering with Bellanaija, Nplug who will be streaming the event live all over the world.
She said Nplug really like the idea and concept of the event and would want the world to see and hear people’s stories.
On what informed the idea of such programme or the initiative, she emphasised that: “I am some one that write down my challenges, my processes, my testimonies a lot and I am the go to person for my family friends and people around me, people come to share their stories with me, to seek for advice for some strange reasons, they believe they can get advice from me for strange reasons they just feel like they can get solutions from me and it has been the same thing over and over and again and I now said to myself, is not my friends alone that need a place and somewhere to let go, to talk, to share, that if there is bigger picture out there, that there are lots of people going through the same thing, the same process, the same challenges, the same experiences, that it will be a wonderful Idea if I can learn from this person’s idea, if I am going through the same experience. More so, some one has gone through that experience and has overcome in terms of business, carrier, something that is going on in the office like promotion, loosing their jobs, that it will be a wonderful thing if other people can benefit from one another’s experiences”.
“We have two main speakers apart from the facilitators, we have, one person being the CEO of Studio 24 that started his business for almost 24 years, we have our coach and mentor, Victor Okigbo who represents three companies, Access Bank being one of the companies and two others. He is a grounded mentor and every body knows him in Nigeria and Dolapo Kukoyi, she started from her youth service and today she is a partner, she coming to tell us her carrier growth from Youth Service even with all the gender issues in the industry to become a partner of Detail Commercial Solicitors which is one of the top five law firms in Nigeria,” she said.
She maintained that, “at Strugz event, we give you the best, we have lots of refreshments, food, drinks, palm wine, we have it all, we are catering for people to sit down let go, outdoor games, Zumba we have it figured out, the barefoot thing is just relaxation and not just a Cele thing, is just to relax, meet other people, network. People from different professions and different calibre of people will be there. The event is strictly by invitation as choice of guest is also selected as well so that when you are networking, you are not networking with the wrong people, but the right people, that is why is strictly by invitation and as such not open to everybody”.
She disclosed that they have a promo campaign on the blog for people to able to win ticket, especially ardent readers on the blog.
In her remarks, Delphine Offor, an event planner who is also planning the event with Amaka explained that she decide to partner with the organiser because the programme is a good idea, adding that a lot of people are not doing this kind of programmes in Nigeria presently.
She maintained that it will help a lot of people ease their stress when they talk about some their personal experiences.
“She has run a lot of this things on her blog and I have gone through them and it makes a lot of sense to me and I said okay, let’s do this. Is scheduled for this October, and I said let’s work around it. She want people to be free not the regular indoor thing that people come all dressed up and stocked up, look at the theme of the event, it tells you to bare out all that you have because everybody is going to be on barefoot at the event. Is part of the theme and is an all white thing because you are supposed to come and interact because we believe that when people are all dressed up with shoes and all that, they feel all tight and cannot easily interact with people. I believe this is the birth of other bigger ones to come, is actually a good one. She has actually done one before on a very low-key, Delphine said .

Speaking also, Cuks Uketui who was privileged to be at the other event observed that it was actually a nice experience being on the first event.
In his word: “You can actually feel the safe part of the programme, the safe haven thing. People were free telling their personal stories, I took a lot home from the personal experience stories a lot of people shared.”
The team includes Oge Eniochu, a make-up artist, Delphine Offor of Dur Events, Chieloka Okekearu, partner for other projects involving the company and the IT person, Chuks Uketui, who used to be president of YCP and the MC of the event, Enemnoh Ada, an upcoming singer/ song writer who will be unveiled on the day of the event, Vivian Obasuyi of Vivis Collections and Theodora who will be in-charge of the media for event.