Fred Ezeh, Abuja
A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Centre for Gender Equality, Education and Empowerment (CGEEE), has begun campaign for increased attention to issues that concern girls education and women empowerment.
Its said that such support would strengthen the voice of women, as well as their capacity to contribute, financially and otherwise, to family and national issues.
To this end, the organization held a mentorship initiative in Abuja named queen arise, with the theme, “Discover, Believe, Take Charge” to join hands with partners in creating opportunities and enabling environment for women to start, grow and thrive their business.
It equally held a fund raising dinner to seek support for beneficiaries of its annual scholarship initiative
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Its founder, Timipre Wolo, told journalists at the event that the scholarship would cover tuition, books and welfare including medicals, transportation, feeding, clothing and other incidentals, for less privileged young girls from the rural communities, orphanages and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in camps.
She explained that the rationale behind the comprehensive scholarship program was to ensure that underprivileged girls who are most vulnerable in the society enrol and remain in school.
She said: “Though, Federal Government has directed all IDPs return home, but most of them have nothing to fall back on. So our concern at the CGEEE are the girls; most of whom are being married off, molested, raped and in many cases end up with unwanted pregnancies.
“We have singlehandedly self -funded all our activities since establishment in December 2017. But it is important that we strategically engage other Nigerians that share same values with us so we could collectively raise funds to assist these girls.”
Wolo however maintained that education is a vital tool for sustainable development, stressing that with quality education, anything is achievable irrespective of status.