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Tag: girl-child

  • Girl-child: Okorocha’s wife, others advocate equal opportunities

    Girl-child: Okorocha’s wife, others advocate equal opportunities

    The challenges facing the girl-child are many and daunting. Ranging from domestic abuse, discrimination, intimidation, harassment to denial of equal opportunities with their male counterparts in education, employment, career and other social and economic pursuits, the girl child has endured the burden with little or no choice.

    Over the years, there have been growing awareness on the plight of the girl child, but little has been achieved in the fight to eliminate these challenges and give the womenfolk, especially the girl child equal opportunities to develop their potentials and actualize their ambitions.

    Also identified as major problems confronting the girl-child is early and forced marriage, which was described as dangerous and dehumanising.

    All these challenges were brought to the fore and brainstormed on by a non-governmental organisation, owned by the wife of the Imo State governor, Nkechi Rochas Okorocha, the Women of Divine Destiny Initiative (WODDI) recently during the event to mark this year’s International Day of the Girl Child.

    The stakeholders at the event including renowned female scholars, businessmen, traditional rulers, clergymen, among others, identified education as the most viable tool to fight all forms of marginalization of the girl child.

    They also blamed obsolete cultural practices that discriminate between the girl child and the male counterpart for most of the challenges confronting the girl child.

    The various speakers advocated unhindered access to quality education and equal opportunities for not sexes as the solution to the plight of the girl child.

    At the celebration with the theme: ‘Girls Progress-Goals Progress What counts for the Girl’, the governor’s wife , submitted that quality education is the bedrock and most viable tool in emancipating the girl child.

    Mrs Okorocha stated that the essence of the celebration is to equip the girl child to fulfil her potentials without any inhibition, adding that “if you get the girl child right,  you have gotten the society right”.

    She described the girl child as source of energy and creativity,  calling on the authorities to pay adequate attention to those things that count for the girl child,  like education and nutrition.

    According to her, girls are the strongest tools of change,  stressing that to attain the vision 2030 SDGs “there must be committed efforts towards empowering the girl-child for a better”.

    Mrs Okorocha also enjoined parents to desist from forcing their children into early marriages, arguing such act and other harmful practices exposes the girl child to danger.

    Other renowned scholars who presented papers on several topics,  including the rights of the girl child,  nutrition and education,  urged the girl child to speak up against any form of abuse, both at home and in their respective schools.

    The Chairman of the Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Samuel Ohiri,  said that the Council had amended all the cultural practices and customs that discriminates and inhibits the girl child from achieving their set goals.

    He said that gone are the days when the girl child is regarded as inferior to the  male child,  adding that such assumption is a result of ignorance and illiteracy.

    He said, “The girl child is as good as the male child.  They should be given equal opportunities to succeed. The idea that the girl-child should sacrifice her education and other opportunities for the male child is condemnable”.

    Highlight of the event was the inauguration of WODDI Girls’ Club in selected  secondary schools , which will serve as a platform for further education and engagements with the girl-child, with the aim of further assistance and mentoring.

  • Lagos restates commitment to rights of girl-child

    Lagos restates commitment to rights of girl-child

    Lagos State Government has restated its commitment to the promotion and defence of the rights of the girl-child.

    Director of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Mrs Clara Adenike Mustapha made this known at this year’s celebration of the International Day of the Girl-Child, organised by Teenseed Foundation, Ladder and Hope Inspired Foundation at the American Corner, CcHub, Yaba, Lagos.

    Mrs. Mustapha said the government, while acknowledging the vulnerable place of the girl-child would continue to defend the rights of the girl-child and meet with stiff penalties any predators that would violate and abuse them.

    As part of the government’s continued innovative support for the plight of the girl-child, Mrs. Mustapha said the state has established a specialised hospital for women and the girl-child, urging them to avail themselves of the facility.

    “In acknowledgement of the fact that many women and girls usually preferred to be attended to by women medical personnel, the Lagos State Government have established a medical centre for women. It does not have only medical personnel; there are also counsellors, psychologists and others. They are available to give you quality advice on any issues, even those you can’t even discuss with your parents,” Mrs Mustapha said.

    Speaking on this year’s theme “The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision 2020, Mrs Mustapha said each adolescent girl has the potential to be great asset to her generation, adding that each of them must be willing to internalise and personalise all the 16 SDGs, as they hold the key to a credible life.

    Earlier, the founder, Hope Inspired Foundation, Miss Ejiro Okotie, said the idea behind the celebration was to remind the girl-child of the potential inherent in them, adding that her organisation has been busy going from school to school, building the capacity of the girls to be the best they could.

    Miss Okotie, a 33-year-old visually-impaired woman, said the idea behind the celebration was to celebrate the uniqueness of the girl-child; especially the adolescent, and make them to realise that they can break the glass ceiling and the stereotypes capable of holding them down.

    Miss Precious Ozemeya, founder Ladder, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) involved in gathering data on adolescents and teenagers for all-inclusive governance, said with appropriate data that include all classes of the society; including all those with physical disabilities.

    Miss Ozemeya, who started her organisation earlier this year, said the lack of data has hampered a robust development of programmes that could benefit the disabled and vulnerable adolescents, especially the girl-child, adding that Ladder is out to bridge the gap.

    Founder, Teens Economic and Social Development (Teenseed) Foundation Mrs Oge Ezeokoli who described the girl-child as the backbone of the society, said the essence of the celebration was to bring all adolescent school girls together to share ideas on the challenges they all face as girls in the society and how they have been able to overcome them.

    “The idea is to inspire others to learn from the challenges and problems of others to avoid falling into the same pitfalls,” she said.

    Mrs Ezeokoli praised all schools who attended the programme for giving their best, even as she challenged the girls to look beyond their fear, challenge stereotypes, and face their studies, adding that education is the tool against oppression, poverty and backwardness.

    Earlier Miss Fortoumata Zebro and Queen of Nigeria World (2017/2018), Miss Chidera Ugwueze, urged the girls to resist peer pressure, shun drugs, and be determined to succeed.

    Miss Zebro, who came from Burkina Faso, said: “Success and failure are no respecter of any gender. To succeed, you must dream, but much more, you must work extra hard on your dream. I want you all to remember, you cannot feature in a future you cannot envision.”

    Among schools that attended the event were Queens College, which came with its Special Children Centre, Layole College, and eight others.

    There were poetry presentations, short speeches, and sign language recitation of the National Anthem, among others.

  • NGO celebrates international girl child day in Nigeria

    NGO celebrates international girl child day in Nigeria

    Considering the obstacles; cultural, social, religious and institutional, stacked against the Nigerian girl child, a Non-Governmental organization, Child Love and Protection Advocacy Initiative (CLAPAI), has celebrated the girl child during the World girl child celebration day recently.

    To mark the occasion, which is held every October 11, CLAPAI organized a programme dubbed ‘Project Pad a Girl for Free’. Mrs Kyenpiya Nyaban, founder and chief executive officer of the orphanage home, based in Jos, Plateau State, said the ideas behind the program was to give girls free sanitary pads for their menstruation periods so predating men would not take advantage of their inability to purchase such to exploit them.

    The founder of the orphanage home, which is located in Zarazong Village in Jos East Local Government Council Area, said the event, which was a huge success according to her, would have been impossible but for MMM’s financial intervention. She used the occasion to call on public-spirited Nigerians and corporate bodies to extend their hands of fellowship to the orphanage.

    The highlight of the event was the reading of a poem entitled ‘A Girl with a Book’, whose central theme is that an educated girl child is ambitious, inquisitive, outspoken and proud of her sexuality, and therefore, cannot be intimidated, abused or sexually exploited.

    Elated by the event and the free sanitary pads given to her, Jessica Gomut, thanked the orphanage and its funding partner, MMM, for the timely intervention, saying “ I won’t be buying pads anytime soon. That means I am going to save some money which will be used for something else. I am grateful to CLAPAI.”

    Over 500 girls benefitted from the free pad donation by the orphanage which was funded by MMM, an online non-investment, not-for-profit community where participants freely provide financial assistance and also receive, with their spare money without any expectation of any profit whatsoever.

    In recent times, the scheme has been providing assistance to the less-privileged in the society such as people sacked from their homes by flood, internally displaced persons living in various camps across the country, provision of educational materials to pupils e.t.c

  • The Nigerian girl-child on my mind

    Nigeria’s Rights of the Child prescribes that all children must have minimum of nine years of education.

    What manner of meddlesome law makers do we have in this country? If they can continue to rip the nation’s resources apart, unperturbed , earning ludicrous emoluments not even the U. S President or the British Prime Minister earns, must they also continue to be a cog in the wheel of the anti corruption war? What is their own if EFCC  is asking  a house wife to explain the sources of her unearned wealth which runs into billions of naira? What right do they have to poke their noses into executive functions so annoyingly, they are asking banks to unfreeze accounts already countermanded by the anti graft agency? Aren’t they bothered about Nigerians perceiving them as apostles of corruption?

    In order to protect the identity of the young subject of this article, the piece will be slightly edited, and the authorship shall not be ascribed. The piece is a reaction by a concerned, highly respected Nursing Professional, a former university teacher, now well into her 80’s and came as a reaction to a similar harrowing story of an 11 year old also in the North of our country.

    That other story briefly.

    In a letter she captioned: “The Painful Story of My Life”, the 11 year old wrote: “… I was married off at age 11. In my village, most of us were married by age 12 to preserve our purity. I am still not sure what that means. I never thought it would happen to me because my parents allowed me to attend school instead of hawking and I loved school a lot. I loved school because I loved coming first and being ahead of the boys in my class. I was in JS2 when my mother started talking about getting me married. I honestly thought she was joking until my uncle brought his friend to our house as my suitor.

    My suitor, Malam Faruk was a shoe seller and cobbler in Zaria. He was 42 years old and my parents felt he would make a good husband. I neither understood what they were talking about nor did I understand what I would do with a husband. So that’s how Malam Faruk started coming to our house with wraps of suya and juice from the city. I liked the suya but I didn’t want a husband. He said he had 2 wives and he wanted to make me his third. He said his last daughter was in JS2 like me. He told me that when we got married I would stop going to school and bear him beautiful babies. I thought he was mad. I wanted to stay in school and become a nurse. I loved nurses in their immaculate white uniforms and how they had the solution to all problems at the health centre in my village.” She did not escape until she had had a boy who, according to her,  could very well be an Almajiri today.

    I digress.

    Mama in her reaction writes:

    “What do we do as a nation, a member of  the civilised community? A country where children as young as six years are given out in marriage? Let me quickly share my  experience of child marriage. I always like to have a child from my home town with me in Ibadan to send to school. The pre requisite qualifications are that such a kid must be brilliant and from a financially disadvantaged home.

    This was how this pretty 14 year old girl was brought  to me by my brother who told me the girl’s family was a returnee from Yola, victim of Boko Haram. Her mother is an Hausa  woman from Taraba State. Her father died shortly after returning home.

    Let us call the girl’s name Jolade for the purpose of this discussion.

    This was in January 2017. We got a school  for Jolade and  was put in Primary 3!

    After observing her behaviour for a couple of weeks, I started my investigation of her background even though she had, herself,  told me a lot.

    Below are my findings which are very pertinent to our on going discussion on child marriage.

    Jolade’s parents separated while she was about five years old.

    On the advice of some people, her mother who had custody gave her away  in marriage to a man aged about 45 because she couldn’t  cope with her upkeep.

    The husband bought a goat for the child wife and the husband ‘s family instructed him not to have sex with his wife until the goat gave birth. He obeyed.

    The day the goat gave birth, he had sex with the child who was  then about six years old. Jolade told me she bled  a lot, could not walk for days, and that she was always crying.  No one cared for her. Her husband always threatened to beat her if she did not stop crying during intercourse.

    The husband,  his family and Jolade’s mother subsequently held a meeting  and agreed that the husband should not have sex with her again until the goat’s babies  grew horns. The man refused and  continued to rape and  sexually assault Jolade in spite of her pain, agonising crying and protests which was literally on a  daily basis.

    In the meantime, her farther was looking everywhere for her. The mother  told him that she also did not know her where about.  The father the went to her mother’s village in Taraba State to lodge a report with her grand mother with an ultimatum to produce his daughter. The grand mother finally rescued Jolade and brought her back to her father. Her ordeal lasted from shortly before Christmas of one year to after Easter of the second year. She said that her husband bought Christmas  dresses for her two times. She was probably married for about 20 months, a period she described  as hell”.

    Mama continues:

    Is there any law that can protect the girl child from predators who “marry” children  as wives?

    Yes, there is. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of  the Child describes a child as a human being under the age of 18 years. The African Union adopts the same definition and Nigeria is a signatory to both q laws. Nigeria, represented by President Babangida ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993 shortly before he stepped aside. I believe the bill for domestication of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was  submitted to the National Assembly before he left.

    There were, understandably, objections from those who marry kids as wives. A lot of political manoeuvre went on for many years before the bill was passed and sent to the 36 States. I am certain not all the 36 States have domesticated, or would domesticate it. States in  Southern Nigeria have since done so.

    What is the relevance of this to our discussion on child marriage?

    Nigeria’s Rights of the Child prescribes  that  all children must have minimum  of nine years of education. It also lists child marriage, making children to hawk, among other things as child abuse.

    In essence child marriage violates the rights of the child by not allowing them to stay in school and subjecting  them to marriage for which they are not physically,  psychologically,  and emotionally prepared. In many cases, the right of the girl child to life is violated when the kids die as a result of pregnancy, child birth and some other illnesses that arise from this unfair, and illegal, practice.

    The practice of child marriage constitutes the SHAME of any nation which cannot keep to the spirit and letters of international protocols to protect her children;  but which she ratified with all the  fun fare. It is also an act of gross irresponsibility at the national level, that Nigeria cannot obey her own rules to keep the girl child safe from these predators.

    There are other laws in Nigeria that stipulate the minimum education our kids should acquire and it is only fair that those who deliberately abort these by their predatory and very irresponsible libidonal  predilections should be made to face the law.

    And my question: which is the culprit here: culture, religion or plain ignorance?

     

  • Nigeria 27th toughest countries to educate girl child – Survey

    Nigeria 27th toughest countries to educate girl child – Survey

    As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark the International Day of the Girl Child 2017, the country has been ranked 27th in the world on the index of the toughest places for a girl child to be well educated.

    The country Director of ONE campaign, Serah Makka-Ugbabe, made this known  in Abuja.

    He said 52 per cent  of girls in Northeast  have never been to school, making it the toughest region for girls education in Nigeria.

    According to her, President Muhammadu Buhari has recently acknowledged the depth of the problem and the Ministry of Education has developed the 2016-2019 Ministerial Strategic Plan.

    “According to ONE’s research, the top 10 toughest places for a girl to get an education are South Sudan, Central African Republic, Niger, Afghanistan, Chad, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Liberia and Ethiopia based on factors including female literacy rates, rate of out-of-school girls, and more. All of these countries are fragile states, and nine  of 10 are in Africa.

    “Nigeria is ranked 27th on ONE’s index of the toughest places for a girl to get an education, a ranking that underscores the need for action to ensure that every girl in Nigeria gets an education, with particular attention to the regional differences highlighted by the report. Education is in crisis in Nigeria.

    “Unfortunately, it is not a crisis that many can see immediately that is what makes addressing it so hard. It is a crisis nonetheless. 52% of girls in Northeast Nigeria have never been to school, making it the toughest region for girls education in Nigeria. “In comparison, only 5% of girls in the South South geopolitical zone have never been to school. For those who are in school, what are the learning outcomes? Are we actually training the future of Nigeria for the 21st century?”

    Ugbade also said:”This International Day of the Girl Child, ONE is launching ‘The Toughest Places for a Girl to Get an Education’ Index, which highlights the unique challenges faced by girls in the poorest countries and breaks down the toughest ten countries. Nine of the ten ‘toughest places’ are in Africa, and all are fragile states. “Nigeria is ranked number 27 on ONE’s Toughest Place for Girls to Get an Education Index, reflecting the urgency of the problem facing Africa’s most populous nation. With a population that is set to more than double to 400,000,000 people by 2050, educating Nigeria’s girls is crucial to the country reaping the potential benefits of its population boom”.

    The Director-General of the National Centre for Women Development?, Barrister Mary Ekpere Eta, in his welcome remark at the occasion said the girl child has continued to face challenges in many countries of the world, including Nigeria.

    She condemned the use of girl child as sex slaves, baby making factory and early and forced marriage resulting in VVF.

  • I am proud to be a girl

    I am proud to be a girl

    A girl is a female human; she goes through stages of life from childhood, adolescence until she becomes a woman.

    Well, as a girl child I am a proud lover, wife, daughter, mother, sister and of course a proud citizen.

    I am that girl, because I believe that I deserve to feel proud of my achievements and not deliberately reduce my light and shine because someone else feels insecure.

    I have a brilliant mind and a beautiful heart. I am me…yes perfectly flawed but beautyFULL work in progress.

    There are a lot of things only a girl can do that will make everyone around so so proud!

    Most people (especially in this part of the world) consistently undermine the value and relevance of the female child; they would prefer a male child who is capable of “preserving” the family name.

    In this century, ladies still choose to use their father’s name combine with their husband’s name which makes it a compound name.  For instance, Mrs Bimpe Adekoya-Moses.

    The ‘Adekoya’ is the father’s name while the ‘Moses’ is the husband’s name.

    Let’s not get it twisted, we know the saying that “what a man can do, a woman can do better”, this is a FACT!

    We are fragile, we are a jealous, we get hurt very easily, however, in all our seeming weaknesses, we are stronger than you think.

    We are very creative, innovative and persistent especially when we want something; even if sometimes we hardly get what we want.

    Being a girl isn’t easy, especially in this time and age. We are sensitive to pain, we get heartbroken easily.

    As we celebrate the international day of the girl child, we recognize the importance and strength that she portrays and expresses. This celebration isn’t just about fundraising and raising awareness, it is about collection of data to learn as much as we can.

    Forget that boring song “This is a man’s world”, it’s time we started to dance and sing to more interesting songs like “who runs the world…girls!!!”.

    We are in a world where adolescent girls have unfettered access to sexual and reproductive health information and services; they possess the knowledge and confidence they need to make the right choices for a healthy life.

    I am a girl and I am proud of myself.

    I am pretty, cool, soft-hearted.

    We are all beautiful and are the masterpiece of the greatest sculptor ever – God! Little wonder he made us from a finished product (that is, from the man), and not directly from dust.

  • Minister, Plan International advocate rights of girl-child

    Minister, Plan International advocate rights of girl-child

    The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu on Wednesday joined other proponents of the girl-child rights to advocate for rights and opportunities for girls worldwide.

    It was at the event organized by Plan International- an independent global rights organization committed to supporting vulnerable and marginalized children and their communities to be free from poverty.

    Represented by Ariba Opeyemi in Abuja at the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child, the minister said that the United Nations has set October 11 for promoting the rights of girls and addressing the unique challenges they face.

    The theme was: “Unlock the Power of Girls Now.”

    He noted that the day promotes girls’ human rights, highlights gender inequalities that remain between girls and boys and addresses the various forms of discrimination and abuses suffered by girls around the world.

    According to Adamu, the ministry has in its effort to boost girl-child education developed the National Policy in Gender Education to ensure that gender is systematically mainstreamed into all components of the education sector.

    He said that the policy goal is to ensure equal access to basic education and promote retention, competition and high performance for all pupils which require attention and provisions for particularly the disadvantaged children especially girls at the basic education level.

    The minister said that the ministry has put in place some strategies to encourage girl-child education in schools which includes advocacy and sensitization.

    He added that there are also incentives for girls including scholarship schemes funded by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).

    Adamu was thankful to the organizer, Plan International Nigeria for its quest for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

    His words: “Your contributions to the lives of our young children especially the girls will go a long way to help in living fulfilled lives and ensuring that the girl-child is educated.”

    Speaking, Country Director, Plan International Nigeria, Hussaini Abdu said that Nigeria’s commitment and capacity to meet the SDG vision 2030 target will substantially depend on the level of investment in adolescent girls.

    He added that commitment to the adolescent girl will help strengthen this important age category, deal with the structural inequality and discrimination, and help break the structural inequality and discrimination, and help break the circle of poverty and exclusion.

    Abdu submitted that “to achieve this, government, development partners and civil society groups will need to invest in targeted programmes, advocate and develop adolescent-specific policies and programmes and involve them in the decision- making processes.”

    He had earlier revealed that there are about 600million adolescent girls between age 10 to 19 in the world, each with boundless individual potential, but limited opportunities.

    He said that they are less recognized and given limited attention and almost vanishing from public awareness and the international development agenda.

    According to him, adolescent girls are faced with structural challenges of inequalities in education, access to public health protection and even targeted development interventions.

    He insisted that investing in adolescent girls can have enormous multiplier effects on their development and contribute to creating a better world by 2030.

    Meanwhile, the former Ambassador of Ethiopia, Nkoyo Toyo, called for the use of basic income and effective public campaigns to bring about the wholesale change in attitudes to ensure that girls and women are valued equally with boys and men.

    She said that the “basic income will put the girl out there invisible ways and places of power and help them to seek ways to influence their circumstances.”

  • Runway model makes case for the girl-child

    Runway model makes case for the girl-child

    n her way of drawing attention of the general public to issues considered less-attended, international runway model, Bertha Amuga, has unveiled her charity organization, Amuga’s Hope.
    According to Amuga, the rising cases of rape and sexual abuse resulting in teenage pregnancies need to be addressed and avoided as quickly as possible instead of being neglected.
    Speaking further, she said that the NGO counsels, educates and empowers teenage girls and teenage mothers, describing its main target as the under-represented part of the population.
    Amuga added that the NGO aims to provide adequate training for young ladies by way of enhancing their education and teaching them skills and craft that will equip them to make a living for the upkeep of themselves and their very young children, rather than languishing in abject poverty and ending up in unsavory jobs such as prostitution or crime, or keeping them unemployed and vulnerable to become victims of unscrupulous elements of society.
    “If you have issues like this, ‘Amuga’s Hope’ is an NGO that fights for the rights of these girls. You can call us and we will get a lawyer to fight your case. For teenage mothers, we also get them skill acquisition to enable them raise money for themselves and their kids,” she stated.
    She further revealed that ‘Amuga’a Hope’ is run in partnership with the Ministry of Defense.

  • The 21st Century Girl Child

    The 21st Century Girl Child

    Gone are those days when strenuous house chores and upbringing of ones offspring were seen as the ingredient of a virtuous woman.

    Those were the days when suffering was seen as a necessity, when technology was seen as an excuse to be lazy, when ladies had to depend on their man for the least of needs.

    In fact, those were the days when men pride themselves on how well they can control their women, and have her take care of the family and other domestic affairs without giving credence to the woman.

    Instead she is scolded and shouted at for making silly mistakes.

    Now we are in an era of ‘wise ladies’; ladies that see technology as an integral part of civilization.

    Ladies that now occupy organizational/political positions formerly believed to belong to men.

    Ladies who want to make significant and formidable impact in our world.

    Ladies who pride themselves in hustling for their own needs rather than become housewives.

    Ladies who readily embrace the totem of being the ‘neck’, but have refused to see the neck-position as a place of weakness but of strength.

    Ladies who out of sheer determination and hardwork have surmounted the sundry inhibitions and limitations of societal norms and traditions.

    The world has changed and the girl-child has begun to see it in a different perspective; we call them the ‘21st century girl-child’.

    The 21th century girl-child is technology-oriented. She is not just content with staying at home and playing the ‘good sister’ to her siblings and an obedient daughter waiting to get married. But she joggles domestic expectations with her ambitions.

    A 21st century girl child is surrounded by various social media platforms and she wants to be famous in all of them. Is that too much to ask?

    She wants to be a YouTube star, she wants to be a Facebook celebrity, she wants her opinion to be heard and respected based on its own merit and not just on gender colourations.

    A 21st century girl-child wants to slay…she wants to glow, she wants to trend, she is a studio pic freak, she is in love with ‘likes’ and ‘positive comments’.

    A 21st century girl-child is stubborn especially in her unwavering belief for gender equity.

    The 21st century girl-child is eager and excited. She wants to explore, she wants to love, she gets her heart broken and learn from the mistakes of relationships.

    A 21st century girl-child will never shrink herself to salvage the ego of another person neither would she become small for someone who refuses to grow.

    The 21st century girl-child will never adjust her behaviour to be likeable, because she knows that most times she loses her trueself in a bid to please someone else.

    Of a truth, being assertive can be very hard for women (girl-child) because an assertive woman is often mistaken to be unruly and proud.

    But still a 21st century girl-child understands that not being liked, as hard as it may be, might be a sign of something you are doing right.

    A 21st century girl-child is tough. Is a boss. Is rational. Is confident. Her actions and words are not limited by the dogmas of culture.

    Above all, a 21st century girl-child wants to be seen and heard too.

  • 100 students get computer sets

    100 students get computer sets

    One hundred students have received a computer set each from the wife of Ondo State Governor, Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu. The gesture was aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the girl child ICT programme organised for girls picked from 23 secondary schools in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

    Speaking at the event which held at the Public Service Training Institute, Ilara-Mokin, Mrs Akeredolu expressed optimism that the digitally-empowered girls would deploy the knowledge acquired at the programme to become key players in the global space.

    Mrs Akeredolu, who recalled her growing days in Emeabiam, a remote community in Imo State, gave insights to the dream behind the vision.

    “I was born when women were not supposed to go to school and all you get is that they prepare you for that graduate husband. That is why I have been championing the cause that God has given me the opportunity to. I am running with it. We need to make extra effort to make our young girls understand that they have the capacity to be more. That is the foundation we are laying now.

    “I don’t just want to bridge the gender gap; I want these girls to be part of the solution to our societal problems. Here is the connection. The Solar Girls will fix the panels in their school and the ICT girls will operate the computer. In a few years’ time, we should have a Digital Academy here in Akure- a virtual classroom. That is how to use skills to solve societal problems.”

    She further acknowledged the place of ICT and Solar Energy Technology as being able to help in the development of virtual classroom all over the nation, most especially in the remotest villages one can imagine.

    Earlier in his remark, the facilitator from SAO Capital, Temitope Runsewe highlighted the skills impacted on the girls while also calling for sustainability of the programme.

    Mr. Runsewe, who stated that the digitally-empowered girls will go home with a computer tablet each, reiterated that each of the tablets have been loaded with Jamb Questions, School Curriculum and West African Examination Council (WAEC) syllabus, among others in order to encourage them to continue with the training at home.

    In her keynote address, the Managing Director of Mainone Cables, Mrs. Funke Opeke stressed the need to bridge gender gap in ICT as there is less than 10 per cent gender gap in advanced countries while in Africa, it is over 30 per cent.

    Mrs. Opeke advised young women to pursue careers in engineering and sciences as it is quite fulfilling, noting that it is part of efforts to close the gender gap in the nations’ drive towards development.

    The climax of the event was the distribution of the 100 computer tablets to the girls. Two of the beneficiaries, Ayomiposi Christopher and Bukola Ayodele from St. Dominic’s High School and St. Francis High School, Akure respectively expressed joy at the opportunity given to them to benefit from the programme. They thanked Mrs Akeredolu for impacting their lives.

    Ayomiposi Christopher said: “I have never had the opportunity to touch a computer before and I am not sure I would have because I spend most of my holidays washing plates and sweeping as my parents could not afford the cost of an extra lesson.