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By Merit Ibe
Evolve, a non-profit organization that focuses on girl-child education, and its lead partner, Polaris Bank, have restated their commitment to curbing global warming through intervention in girl-child education in Nigeria.
The Evolve programme, which was launched in 2020 to address the global challenge of climate change through the education of underprivileged girls, is designed to impact over 50,000 direct beneficiaries and 200,000 indirect beneficiaries in the next five years.
Speaking on the impact of the project, managing director, Pacegate Limited, Mr. Umesh Amarnani, said the Evolve CSR programme aims to ensure girl-child education and empowerment to help curb global warming and make an impact in the community.
He said: “At Pacegate, we are committed to building a more sustainable and responsible environment where every girl-child feels valued, empowered and can contribute to the society at large. We strongly believe that through the schools’ supplies provided, value-based education being taught to school teachers and support received from our sponsors, the girl child will have access to a higher level of educational opportunities.”
Also commenting on the initiative, Polaris Bank’s Group Head, Customer Experience Management & Sustainability, Bukola Oluyadi, said the bank recognizes that education and youth empowerment are the most significant indicators of social progress.
He said: “Our commitment to these has been the drive for the empowerment of the girl-child and thus the partnership with Evolve. Since 2021, we have partnered with Evolve and adopted several schools across Nigeria to cater for the needs of the girl child.”
Bamidele Esther, a student of Omole Senior Grammar School, Lagos testified to being a beneficiary of the initiative and noted that it has changed her to a confident and happy person in school.
Head Girl, Opebi Junior Grammar School, Kupoluyi Kehinde, said she and her colleagues are happy students now for the change brought to them by the Evolve initiative.
Evolve has a clear mandate using S-connect approaches adapted from Heartfulness Institute Hyderabad. Through the S-connect, Evolve initiative reaches out to educational institutions mostly secondary schools across the country by providing their female students with basic school supplies in fulfillment of Evolve’s mission to tackle Climate Change by empowering the girl-child. Since its inception, Evolve in collaboration with all of its partners has donated school supplies including school uniforms, sandals, notebooks, pens and bags to over 10,000 female students in 32 schools across 9 states in the country.
In 2022, Evolve also launched Inspire programme to specifically impact teachers. Inspire is a value-based education enrichment programme that assists educators to develop a heart-centered approach to teaching. The focus is to enable teachers to take a holistic approach towards student growth using 21st-century styles of learning such as the Heartfulness Way.
Evolve is the CSR arm of ADIPRO Chemicals, executed through Pacegate Limited and PEARL in Nigeria. The Girl Child Education Initiative was launched based on the Project Drawdown Report to address global warming by focusing on educating the girl child. In the past twenty-five years, the global community has learned that nurturing the ambition of each girl can shape the future of all. Women with more years of education have fewer and healthier children and actively manage their productive health. Education also helps to equip women to face the most dramatic climatic changes.
Aside from Polaris Bank, Evolve has received support from other partners to achieve its mission of empowering girls to eventually reduce global warming. The partners include OVH Energy Marketing now NNPC Retail Ltd, Bic and Crownstar who have supported Evolve with school supplies as well as Hill and Knowlton strategies, an international PR consultancy supporting the project with media and publicity.
