- In 2022, the iChange Nations delegation visited Kenya and Amb. Obadiah was honored and awarded as a World Civility Ambassador.
- Amb. Obadiah has earned several awards for his support to women and their initiatives.
- He will be part of diplomatic conversations with the AU, EU, and other global, international, and national entities to push the humanitarian agenda and ask for more financing of humanitarian action and the provision of resources worldwide.
I believe that inclusivity should be the center of our discussion because all children need equal opportunities to be on a level ground and flourish
Amb. Dominic Obadiah, Humanitarian Diplomat.
Over the years, peace, civility, and humanitarian diplomacy have been the world’s movers in diverse facets, opening doors for economic developments and social cohesiveness, vital for thriving countries and continents.
However, these three cornerstones have taken many people’s efforts to promote and inscribe them in people’s hearts and minds.
One of them is Amb. Dominic Obadiah, a World Civility Ambassador. He has traveled around and beyond the continent, championing peace, civility, diplomacy, and humanitarian action.
Though Amb. Obadiah studied Hotel Reservations and later studied Theology Studies at Landmark College, Texas, he only worked in the hotel industry for a few years and then moved into Global LifeVision, an NGO founded by Ann Webb, a Life Coach and Trainer from Utah, USA.
“She introduced me to service to humanity and, along the way, I realized my purpose and calling was to serve humanity. I worked with the organization from June 2014 to 2018,” he says.
Ms. Webb also owned Ideal LifeVision, a life-coaching and personal development training company, through which Amb. Obadiah was trained and certified as a life coach, becoming the first in Africa to be exclusively trained and certified by the entity.
He became the President for Africa, representing the organization until 2018.
“I was involved in training Africans to identify their goals, write them down and strategize on how to achieve them. I was helping in putting vision, tangibility and reality to their goals,” he explained.
Becoming an ambassador
Under his program, Civility Voice, a humanitarian initiative championing the rights and amplifying the voices of the needy and the underprivileged, he has been highlighting their cases and reaching out to potential aid-givers of goodwill through social media and friends.
“I have been able to build houses for people in Gusii land, Kenya, in Uganda and in Tanzania, and also helped many people to get basic needs, and needy-yet-bright students to get partial scholarships and remain in school,” he says.
Amb. Obadiah started running this program in 2014.
In 2019 and 2020, he was highlighted by the local and national media for his work, triggering iChange Nations to handpick and honor him for standing out and speaking out for the voiceless.
In 2022, the iChange Nations delegation visited Kenya and Amb. Obadiah was honored and awarded as a World Civility Ambassador, alongside 25 other change-makers from across the Gusii region and beyond, who were also honored for their efforts in different areas of community service.
iChange Nations is an international organization founded by Sir Dr. Clyde Rivers and headquartered in the USA, yet present in over 155 countries worldwide. It is the world’s most extensive building culture of honor network, famed for its signature Golden Rule Awards.
Impacting young lives
Over the years, Amb. Obadiah has been helping young people across Africa to realize their immense potential and rise to harness it.
He says he has visited nearly 1,000 schools across Africa in the last decade, spreading a gospel of “If it has to be, it is up to you.”
“I remind them that they must work out their visions to achieve their goals,” he says.
The trendsetter believes that young people play a more significant role in promoting peace and should never swerve into being misused by politicians to cause mayhem in communities they should otherwise be building and transforming.
He’s also part of the Student Business Mentorship Program by Top Talent Agency, US, run by David Fagan and Isabel Donadio, which has visited several high schools and universities in Kenya, training young people on entrepreneurship.
“Mine is to coordinate and be the link to the outside world, bringing in top business leaders from across the globe,” he says.
Empowering women
Equally, Amb. Obadiah fervently believes in the power and essence of equality and equity in society. Since 2014, he has been championing the inclusion of every gender in the decision-making process and helping them achieve sustainable development and self-reliance.
“I am born of a woman, I am married to a lady and I am a father to a daughter. I believe that inclusivity should be the center of our discussion because all children need equal opportunities to be on a level ground and flourish,” he explains.
He has hitherto transformed many lives by training and capacity-building them on sustainable development through starting and running small businesses, farming, and excelling in different backgrounds.
Amb. Obadiah is also the proprietor of Civility Travel, a tours and travel company. Through it, he has met great minds seeking collaborations and been part of their transformative journeys.
This has also made him an events planner, planning and organizing international conferences.
In July 2023, he was one of the main organizers of the life-changing Women Empowering Women Conference (WEWC), hosted by Jeannetta Collier, the Founder and CEO, Imaginary Glass Ceiling LLC., and Jeannetta Collier Enterprises, which saw women from Kenya, US and other parts of the planet come together and get empowered.
Amb. Obadiah has earned several awards for his support to women and their initiatives.
He has equally supported men’s events with the same energy.
In his quest for inclusivity and equality, he has also been running Soccer Language Africa, a program he started in 2017 to mentor boys between 14 and 25 years, using football as an entry point.
Through this, he mentors and reminds them that their dreams are valid and that they are capacitated to be society’s custodians and change-makers in their lifetime.
“Men are culturally regarded as security agents in their homes. It is therefore important for them to love their sisters, mothers and wives and protect them as their equal creation,” he says.
Life lessons
“What you do to yourself is important, but what you do to others matters most,” Amb. Obadiah comments about his lessons over time.
He adds that people will remember you for the impact you leave in their lives, and it’s paramount to touch people’s lives and leave a legacy.
“Not everyone believes in what I do. Many people want to succeed on their own. You cannot create an empire alone; if you want to grow, seek to empower and equip those around you,” he comments.
To combat situations where men appear to be helping women but, in reality, are sabotaging their efforts to thrive, he says it is essential that governments develop policies implementable and measurable to determine and ensure everyone, not only women, gets empowered.
As one actively mentoring and empowering young people, he refutes the narrative that the girl child is more empowered than the boy child, commenting that each is struggling to access opportunities.
“It is about the youth, not gender, and that is why I run programs supporting the two,” he explains, rightly adding that women are still underrepresented.
Certified humanitarian diplomat
To afford a firm grasp of his knowledge, exposure, and skills in peace, humanitarian action and diplomacy, he has, over time, studied Humanitarian Diplomacy, Diplomatic Etiquette and Protocol, and Humanitarian Diplomatic Chaplaincy executive courses at the International College of Peace Studies and got certified in them all upon graduation.
In August 2023, he graduated and took an oath of office in Humanitarian Chaplaincy.
“As a Humanitarian Chaplain, I have been trained and given the tools to negotiate with decision-makers and policy-leaders to act in sensitivity to pertinent principles of humanity in rescuing the suffering with sufficient neutrality, impartiality, independence and humanity,” he says.
He will be part of diplomatic conversations with the AU, EU, and other global, international, and national entities to push the humanitarian agenda and ask for more financing of humanitarian action and provision of resources across the world for the vulnerable and disaster preparedness.
To governments, he advises, “Recognize and give access to humanitarian diplomats to be part of the sitting in parliaments and Senate discussions as part of expert decision-makers on diplomatic and humanitarian-sensitive matters.”
He urges them also to boost funding and have a kitty to combat disasters and facilitate the training of more humanitarians and diplomats.
A peace ambassador
Amb. Obadiah advocates for peace and spreads the message of humanity and transparency, talking to governments and leaders to do good in serving humanity, for they’ll be accountable in the end.
He has been around the world, sitting at decision-making tables and panels, standing on policy-making and change negotiating podiums, and escalating the conversation on humanitarian action, diplomatic negotiations, and peaceful deliberations wherever needed.
Post-colonization, Africa has been battling poverty and conflicts.
“Bad governance has been the major cause, and leaders’ egocentrism has dragged Africans to the pit. All’s not lost, however. Africans, we can get it right by choosing right leaders to be custodians of our countries,” he advises.
Int’l ambassador for ICPS
Recently, Amb. Obadiah was appointed International Ambassador for Special Programs at the International College of Peace Studies (ICPS) by His Eminence Dr. Kennedy Waningu, the President for Africa and Provost, ICPS.
“I will be creating deliberation platforms and coordinating international events and programs for the college,” he explains about his new role.
To kick-start the tasks, he will be traveling to Costa Rica next month to plan for the upcoming peace Conference at U-Peace University on September 7-8, 2023, a global workshop training change-makers on leadership and negotiation skills.
Amb. Obadiah, refusing to sit on his laurels, says that his continuous recognition and awarding have never made him feel like he has arrived. Instead, they spur him on to do more humanitarian work in community service.
Other commitments
He has also attended other global programs such as the Best Diplomats, held in Istanbul, Turkey, in February 2023, and AidEx Conference in Nairobi in June 2023.
To recognize peace champions across the planet, “I’m involved in planning a global peace award event for people doing amazing work in promoting peace. They’ll be awarded in Nairobi, set to happen on November 11, 2023, one of the biggest award and honor ceremonies in our time,” he says.
The event will see nearly four thousand people participate and thousands honored for their transformative works in peace-building.
The change-maker has also been promoting mental wellness wherever he goes. In 2022, he was recognized and awarded as a National Leader in promoting mental health by the Mental Real-Of-State organization founded and run by Dr. Michael Freeland and based in the US.
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Juggling these myriad commitments may seem problematic to you and me but, “As a trained life coach, I plan my day well, writing down and purposing to do and achieve my goals,” he says.
I am impressed by your work. Thank you for covering my story and voicing it to the world.
Welcome and thank you so much. Keep touching more lives, Amb.