Soroptimist Calls For Sustained Empowerment, Mentorship For Girl Child

Mrs Stephanie Apel, Charter President, Soroptimist International (SI) Maitama, has called for the continuous empowerment and mentorship of the girl child in order to secure fair, progressive and evenly developed society. adsbygoogle || []).push({});

She made the call in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the official change of insignia and installation of a new president for the association on Saturday evening in Abuja.

According to Apel, the girl child is a potential wife and mother that must be empowered and supported because her success or failure will reflect on the larger society tomorrow.

She therefore urged Civil Society Groups and government at all levels to give utmost attention to programmes and initiative geared towards the education, empowerment and mentoring of the girl child.

“One thing I always say about empowering the girl child is the fact that when a woman gives birth, as a mother, is that woman that stays with the baby for the first five years.

“So those our big boys that we are expecting to become presidents of Nigeria, if you don’t empower the woman that is going to train them what kind of president are they going to train.

“If we want to have good leaders, we must have good mothers that will train these good leaders because these children are always with us.

“Since the men are not always around, the wives that will always stay with these children must be trained because you can’t give what you don’t have,” she said

Apel, who served as the pioneer president of SI Maitama, said the association in the past two years was committed to providing education and entrepreneurial skills for females in rural communities around the Federal Capital Territory(FCT)

She said the association under her watch, has worked with relevant stakeholders, including the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) of quality education and Gender Equality (SDG5).

She added that the association was also committed to marking relevant UN days such as the International Literacy Day (ILD) with milestone projects that affect the girl child.

“Basically what we do as Soroptimist is empowering women and girls because SI is a women organisation, and we work for the advancement of women and girls.

“I started SI Maitama in 2019, and in spite of the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic our Girls Empowerment Project took us to Senior Secondary School Mpape.

“We gave one year scholarship to 20 girls in their final year who otherwise would have found it difficult graduating, and I am proud to say they are currently writing their senior Secondary Examinations.

“In our bid to provide economic empowerment we also trained rural women in Gaube community in liquid soap making, gave them raw materials to start their businesses, and we have been following them up.

“Within this period, we also embarked on several health sensitisation visits to female schools around the FCT where we distributed sanitary pads to young girls,” she said.

The immediate past president therefore urged her successor and her team to wholeheartedly embrace and pursue the objectives of the association through involvement in projects and initiatives that empower and make life meaningful to women.

Earlier in her remarks, the incoming president of SI Maitama, Ijeoma-Victoria Ogbonna, pledged to build on the successes recorded by the immediate past president by initiating projects that would benefit women and the girl.

“I hereby solicit the support and co-operation of everyone here, including our distinguished quests to make this dream a reality,” she said.

Soroptimist International (SI), founded in 1921 is a worldwide volunteer service organization for women who work for peace, and in particular to improve the lives of women and girls, in local communities.

Its membership work on grassroots projects that help women and girls achieve their individual and collective potential, realise aspirations and have an equal voice in communities worldwide.