By Patience Yakubu
A Kaduna-based NGO, Empowering Women for Excellence Initiative (EWEI) has empowered 50 adolescent girls with digital skills and access to virtual learning as supplementary education platform in Kaduna state.
The founder and Programme Director, EWEI, Mrs Safiya Ibn-Garba said that the girls were empowered under the NGO’s Learning without Limit (LWL) project.
Ibn-Garba said at the project’s closeout in Kaduna on Tuesday, that the 50 teenage girls were selected from eight public secondary schools in the state.
She identified the schools as Government Girls Secondary (GSS) Kabala-Costain, GSS Babban Saura, GSS Rigachikun, GSS Television, GSS Doka, GSS Rigasa, GSS Goni-Gora and GSS Barnawa.
She explained that LWL, a two-year project, was supported by the Girls Opportunity Alliance (GOA), a programme of the Obama Foundation that seeks to empower adolescent girls around the world through education.
She said that the LWL was designed to reduce the digital divide and gaps in access to virtual learning for adolescent girls in Kaduna state.
The programme director said that the project also provided additional opportunities for adolescent girls to access quality and wholesome education and improved their performance in some subject areas.
She further said that with the emergence of technology and the innovation of virtual learning, the girls were supported with technology gadgets.
She identified the gadgets as computer tablets, power banks and earpieces for supplementary education in five key subject areas.
“In addition, the beneficiaries also enjoyed capacity-building in digital marketing, graphic design, climate action, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and basic life skills using UNICEF curricula.
“The essence is to improve their performance in specific subject areas and demonstrate a community inclusive approach to improving access to quality education for girls through the involvement of states and non-state actors,” she said.
She encouraged the girls to remain focused, work hard and maintain the high standard they have exhibited.
Hajiya Sa’adatu Mahmud, the Director, Gender, Kaduna State Ministry of Human Services and Social Development urged the girls to remain focused in their quest for education.
Mahmud called on parents to provide a conducive environment for their female children to enable them to have a brighter future.
She thanked EWEI for empowering the 50 girls and called for more supports to equip young girls with the needed education and life skills to live a quality life.
One of the beneficiaries, Miss Bright Mathew, a student from GSS Kabala-Costain said that beyond the digital skills, she now have access to many text books to study.
She thanked EWEI for the digital devices which enabled her to access virtual learning platforms and materials.
The visibly elated Mathew promised to study hard to become great in the future. (NAN)
Edited by Collins Yakubu-Hammer/Philip Yatai
