Kerry honours Zuriel Oduwole in Washington DC

Outgoing United States (U.S.) Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, in between managing global trouble and flashpoints in China, Syria, Iran, Israel and Brexit, met with 14-year-old filmmakera and girl education advocate, Zuriel Oduwole, in his office at the State Department in Washington DC recently.

Kerry commended Zuriel for the “clarity of purpose” in her fight for girl-child education in Africa through her ‘Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up’ project and her other secondary initiatives, such as film making class for over 305 unemployed youths across Namibia, Kenya, Mauritius and Nigeria.

Kerry was very impressed that a student from her first film class workshop in February last year, 24-year-old Namibian, Anna Kalola, produced her first documentary just nine months later in November last year in Windhoek, the country’s capital.

Zuriel, fluent in English and Mandarin, asked Kerry what his most difficult challenge was in the last four years as Secretary of State.

In one word, he replied: “Syria,” explaining that the difficulty was because of the various proxies and complexities of dealing with many factions with varying interests in the country.