Chatter Matter
It was in 2013 that Dawood Global Foundation (DGF) initiated the Educate a Girl project with the aim of providing scholarships to 1000 deserving girls in Pakistan for vocational training in media studies, and get them into related jobs to strengthen women’s voice in media. Till date, the DGF has funded 880 deserving girls in Pakistan to become journalists. 584 girls have gone through training, 400 have been certified, 3 girls have become news anchors, 6 girls have contributed scholarships out of their first ever paycheques and several girls have columns in leading newspapers and internships.
The good news is that recently, Dawood Global Foundation hosted the Educate a Girl Nigeria Summit at the Oriental Hotel and Virgin Rose Resort, both in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The training educated an audience of 250 deserving Educate a Girl Nigerian Scholarship winners, as well as two Pakistani ‘Educate a Girl’ delegates. Leading Pakistani journalist Dr. Fouzia Khan flew in from Karachi to conduct the training. Other keynote speakers included Canadian-Nigerian poet Juliet Kego Ume-Onyido, who flew in from Toronto, Canada, for the occasion and various local celebrities. The opening keynote was delivered by Pakistani High Commissioner to Nigeria HE Umer Farooq and the closing keynote was made by Wana Udobang, a leading Nigerian broadcaster, writer, poet, performer and curator. Also a special dinner was held in honour of the Pakistani delegation and MalalaFund, GlobalGiving and Participant Media partnered with Educate a Girl for a special screening of ‘He Named Me Malala’ for EAG scholars.
The three-day training was comprehensive. Day 1 focussed on Personal and Professional Grooming for Success, which was facilitated by Nigerian celebrity fashion designer Amede Nzeribe. Day 2 was all about Basics of Journalism, News Writing and Science Writing, conducted by trainer Dr. Fouzia Khan. The participants were also taught Water Journalism, Climate Science and Challenges of Climate Journalism. The third day training focussed on breakout sessions in the morning and Whole Woman Network leadership training in the afternoon.
There is a huge shortage of jobs in Nigeria, especially among youth - the youth demographic as a percentage of the entire population is estimated to be between 65-70 per cent. There exists a cultural bias, which manifests as a discouragement from hiring women for important spots in traditional media, journalism or positions in contemporary types of social media. Thus, this programme is an important step to address an urgent need to increase the representation of women holding influential media jobs in Nigeria, and raise a new generation of transformational, empowered and media-savvy women leaders!