Valentine Benjamin

Valentine Benjamin is a Nigerian travel journalist and visual story teller based in Lagos, Nigeria. Over the past years, his approach towards journalism and photography is shaped by observations of happenings in his immediate environment across Nigeria, and Africa.

As he presses on with is career, his work focuses on under-reported social issues and culture, politics, global health and the environment using images, videos, and text to report these issues from human interest angle. He is also the Africa correspondent for Retreading Business - a UK-based publication where he takes the responsibility for covering the retreading industry across the African continent.

His work appears in various international publications like The National, Vice World News, Ozy, Global Sisters Report, Uk Catholic Herald, Devex, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Al Jazeera, The Guardian(uk) and more.

Valentine studied Mass Communication at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism( NIJ ), Lagos, Nigeria.


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Global Sisters Report •

To foster inclusiveness, Nigerian nuns mainstream pupils with disabilities

Precious Timothy teaches Montessori class color identification, March 9, 2021, at the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul school of inclusive education in Uyo, Nigeria. Nigeria offers few schools for children with disabilities. (CNS/Valentine Iwenwanne)

On a sunny afternoon, the Rev. Gideon Oyabugbe, a minister at a local Baptist church, walked into St. Vincent's Centre for Inclusive Education to pick up James, his 8-year-old son, who is autistic. Oyabugbe had never heard about autism,
Global Sisters Report •

As mental illness rises in Nigeria, nuns offer treatment, shelter to indigent people in Uyo

Ime Effiong (left, in yellow), one of the women who received mental health care from the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, tends to the birds on the poultry farm under Sr. Catherine Nkereuwem’s supervision in Uyo, a town in southeastern Nigeria. (Valentine Iwenwanne)

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On a hot afternoon in September 2014, Imaobong Effiong was picked up from the streets of this southeastern town by a sister of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vinc
Global Sisters Report •

Q & A with Sr. Bukola Familade on how persecution, insecurity affect the Nigerian church

When Sr. Bukola Familade left her career in accounting to become a nun, she had no clue what she was going to face, but her passion was built around living a life of chastity. It's an ambition she had nursed from her childhood. "My parents vehemently opposed my quest to become a nun because they didn't like the idea, being their first child of five children," she said. "They wanted me to become a merchant banker. It later took the intervention of neighbors, family members, friends and the Holy S
Global Sisters Report •

Nigerian Catholics speak of 'palpable fear' as anti-Christian violence escalates

Despite a gunshot wound to his chest, Bade Salau, 74, survived the Black Sunday attack on St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church June 5 in Owo, Ondo, Nigeria. (GSR photo/Valentine Iwenwanne)

St. Louis Sr. Agnes Adeluyi remembered June 5 was a particularly hot afternoon, when she and her team of nurses labored to save the survivors of the church shooting in Owo, a city in the southwestern Nigerian state of Ondo. Covered in fatal gunshot wounds, the victims called for help as they were dying, Adeluyi
Global Sisters Report •

Nigerian sisters see people 'made in God's image' as they serve patients with leprosy

Ivo Mathew's foot and leg show the permanent effects of leprosy. He was diagnosed with the disease in 1998 at age 24 and recovered after treatment at St. Patrick's Mile Four Hospital, a Catholic hospital that the Medical Missionaries of Mary run in the Nigerian capital city of Abakaliki. (GSR photo/Valentine Iwenwanne)

In June of 1998, Ivo Mathew, a 24-year-old bricklayer, started noticing mysterious red skin patches on his right leg. Once the patches developed into a leg ulcer, he was referred
Global Sisters Report •

For displaced Nigerians fleeing terrorism, sisters offer trauma care, drug treatment

Patience Iremiah, 9, receives the first of three HPV vaccine doses in the New Kuchingoro IDP Camp in Abuja, Nigeria, on March 25. The vaccine protects against infections and cervical precancers. (GSR photo/Valentine Benjamin)

While living in a camp for internally displaced persons, or IDPs, in Nigeria, Joseph James often experienced depression, anxiety, anger, flashbacks and nightmares. Memories of Boko Haram haunted him, particularly the foot soldiers who in 2014 raided his hometown of Gwoza,
National Catholic Reporter •

Catholic nonprofit supports Nigerian inmates and advocates for police reform

A demonstrator holds a sign during protest in Lagos, Nigeria, Oct. 17, 2020, over alleged police brutality by SARS, or Special Anti-Robbery Squad. The police unit, created in 1992, had long been accused of harassing and physically abusing civilians. It was disbanded in October 2020. (CNS photo/Reuters/Temilade Adelaja)

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Lilian Otutu, now a business administration student, was arrested on suspicion of murder in September 2018 and was bundle
National Catholic Reporter •

Nigerians call out government failures as Catholic nonprofits aid flood victims

People walk through floodwaters following several days of downpours in Kogi, Nigeria, Oct. 6. Officials in Nigeria have called the floods the country's worst in more than a decade, blaming the disaster on heavy rainfall and the release of excess water from the Lagdo Dam in neighboring Cameroon. (AP/Fatai Campbell)

One early morning in September, a flood surge gushed into Endurance Kiki's home in Kpakiama in southern Nigeria. More than a foot of filthy water bubbled into her apartment, forcing h
National Catholic Reporter •

Nigerian Catholic Church launches campaign to plant 5.5 million trees

A canopy of mangrove trees is seen at the Lekki Conservation Centre in Lagos, Nigeria. Mangrove is among the tree varieties being seeded and planted on Catholic Church properties as part of a new church campaign that aims to plant 5.5 million trees over the next five years to prevent flooding and mitigate climate change. (Dreamstime/Matthew Omojola)

After work every evening, Alfred Dodo saunters into his backyard where he waters his moringa seedlings — it is a routine he never misses. He plante

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