Five female youths in Nigeria have won 1,000 dollars (N570, 000) each for winning the 2021 Social Impact Challenge Competition, organised by the YoungStars Initiative.
The winners, Ms Wilfred Emmanuella, first position, Adeboh Hannah, second, Comfort Agbo, third, Gift Ononiwu, fourth and Dorcas Jacob, fifth, were rewarded at the inauguration of the 2022 Female And More (FAM) Summit in Abuja
Mr Kingsley Bangwell, the group’s Executive Director, said that the female and more impact challenge was to boost female prowess and create impactful environment.
“The female and more project is a self-esteem and leadership development programme targeting young females.
“Through this programme, we are helping females to develop and enhance their self-esteem, self-belief and abilities to pursue greatness and grow.
“This is for them to contribute to society and nation building. And, we are doing this because a lot of report is exhibiting that self-esteem is hindering lots of females from stepping out into greatness.
“The programme is, therefore, targeted at changing the social narrative of telling women that they cannot but boosting their esteem that they can and can do more,’’ he said.
Bangwell said that the winners were rewarded for their commitment to the 30 days reading and learning challenge, based on the point gathered and from the impactful projects for other females carried out by contestants.
Mrs Pauline Tallen, Minister of Women Affairs, commended the group for the initiative to put females into the task of changing the narratives in a male dominated world.
Tallen, represented by Mr Iliyasu Umar, from the ministry, said that it was laudable to see an NGO groom young women to become strong force that would place them in leadership position side-by -side with male counterpart across Africa.
“Women empowerment is not only a fundamental human rights but necessary foundation for peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.
“There has been progress over the last decades with more girl child enrollment in schools, advocacy and awareness creation on such issues as early marriage, sexual gender-based violence and more increased women in leadership positions.
“And, the laws are being reformed to advance gender equality, but in spite of the gains many challenges persist, discriminatory laws, culture and social norms remain pervasive,” she said.
The minister advocated more women in politics, equal representation at the parliament and at all levels of political leadership.
Chairman, Nigrians in Diaspora Commission, (NIDCOM), Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa, also commended the group for enabling girls to strive to attack greatness.
Dabiri-Erewa, represented by a member of staff, urged girls to not just change the narrative in the society but to also create a unique narrative for themselves.
Also, Ms Gift Ononiwu, one of the winners with disability also commended the initiative to boost female self-esteem and create a platform to impact and be impacted.
Ononiwu said that the project had enabled her to look beyond her physical disabilities and into her inner abilities to impact other females as well as be impacted upon.
She urged more NGOs and the government to emulate the programme by identifying the areas of strength of the females and engage them for more productive generation.
Another winner, Ms Wilfred Emmanuella, lauded the organisers, its team and sponsors for the platform and called for more innovative ones across spheres of government for female to thrive.
The winners went through a 30-day online learning, individual video presentations and six months social impact project for the females in their local communities.
