Mrs Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, wife of Ondo State governor, has said that her initiative, BEMORE, trained no fewer than 3,000 young girls on various vocational skills in the past six years.
Anyanwu-Akeredolu made the disclosure at the opening ceremony of the BEMORE Summer Bootcamp 2023 held on Monday in Akure.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 350 young girls are attending the two weeks BEMORE SUMMER BOOTCAMP 2023, drawn from all the 18 local government areas of the state.
The governor’s wife, who declared opened the camp virtually, said that the initiative was to close the widened gender gap in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and entrepreneurship(STEM+E).
She explained that activities at the bootcamp were designed to empower young Nigerian girls in critical areas of science and technology while creating opportunities to help them improve on their lives and make meaningful contribution to the socio-economic development of their respective communities.
“In the last six years, I have treasured this moment and it’s bounty harvests. It affords me the chance to yearly re-give myself to a new set of sterling Nigerian girls through this credible platform.
“This, for me, is an exceptional opportunity to build these promising girls into confident, competent and worthy women who, in the fullness of time, will rewrite the narrative around womanhood.
“We have had five outstanding editions of BEMORE Boot Camps with great successes. We have given to the world rare gifts of female champions who are making waves as solar energy queens, ICT experts and sought-after young entrepreneurs .
“Through BEMORE, we have successfully raised about 3,000 girls as ‘ special breed without greed’,” she said.
Mr Lucky Ayedatiwa, the Acting Governor of the state, applauded Mrs Anyanwu-Akeredolu for empowering the girl-child and womenfolk across the state since 2017.
Ayedatiwa, who was the chairman of the occasion, said that the initiative would bring huge signature revolutionary impact on the society at large.
“You have championed a whole crusade that is committed to building a society free from abuses and prejudice against the girl child and women, using strategic tools of advocacy, education, empowerment and engagement in nation building.
“You have also built core competencies in teamwork, problem-solving, social and leadership skills, solar energy, information and communication technology for Nigerian girl child and womenfolk,” he said.
Ayedatiwa, therefore, charged the participants to take the training seriously, saying the training programme would help them unleash their energies and potentials by bringing out the best and taking bold steps about their life.
Dr Mbang Kooffreh-Ada, Senior Lecturer and Chief Consultant, University of Calabar, called on parents to improve the nutrition status of their girl-child for them to have positive impacts and contribute to national development.
Kooffreh-Ada, who presented a paper on “Addressing Nutrition and Food Security in Nigeria- A Call to Action”, also called on governments, NGOs and other relevant agencies to make policy reforms and target the root causes of malnutrition and food insecurity in the nation
Source: News Agency of Nigeria