Group seeks support for girl child education, women empowerment

The Centre for Gender Equality, Education and Empowerment (CGEEE) at the weekend hosted a Fund raising dinner to enhance girl child education and women empowerment in the country.

The fund which was part of an initiative to support beneficiaries of CGEEE Scholarship Initiative (CSI) is targeted at ensuring young girls from rural communities, orphanages and internally displaced persons in IDPs camps get education scholarships which covers tuition, books and welfare including medicals, transportation, feeding, clothing and other incidentals.

The Founder CGEEE Barrister Timipre Wolo in her address debunked that the foundation sponsored youths in commercial helicopter training, the foundation women empowerment and girl child education.

Wolo said the rationale behind providing the comprehensive scholarship program was to ensure that girls remain in school, having become victims of circumstances they had no control over, lamenting that young girls who should ordinarily be in school are actually assigned the responsibilities of fending for themselves.

“As the federal government has directed that all IDPs return to the villages, the truth is most them have nothing to go back to, so our concern at the CGEEE are the girls; most of whom are being married off, molested, raped in many cases end up with unwanted pregnancies.

She said, “CGEEE has singlehandedly self -funded all its activities since establishment in December 2017, and however for sustainability purposes it is expedient for us to strategically engage well-meaning Nigerians and donors who share the same values for girl child education and women empowerment.”

Wolo maintained that education is a vital tool for sustainable development and that with quality education, anything is achievable irrespective of your status at birth.

The CGEEE as part of its plan to expand the scope for women empowerment, also organised a mentorship initiative named Queen Arise, tagged: “Discover, Believe, Take Charge” to join hands with partners in creating opportunities and enabling environment for women to start, grow and thrive their business.