INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE GIRL CHILD 2020

Theme: My Voice, Our Equal Future

The International Day of the Girl Child is an annual event held globally every October 11th to celebrate the life and struggles of the Girl Child and to bring about a positive change in the mindsets of people around the world about the Girl Child.

The Girl Child has for so many decades been overlooked in the spectrum of society. In some homes and cultures, they are not allowed to reach the same educational levels as their male counterparts. A lot of people wrongly believe that girls are probably not as intelligent or mentally/physically strong as their male counterparts, leading to all forms of discrimination against the female gender in the workplace, socio-political space, educational sector, and the general society at large. This line of thought needs to change.

So many successful women today like Folorunso Alakija, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Mo Abudu, Helen Johnson Sirleaf, Hilary Clinton, Yemi Alade, Serena Williams amongst others have shown that if given the chance, the Girl Child can successfully reach the zenith of her career and industry as well as to attain the highest level of education possible, hence the importance of celebrating the International Day of the Girl Child is to raise awareness of the opportunities made available to the Girl Child.

This year 2020, the Children Youth and Women Empowerment Initiative, ChiYoWo joined the rest of the world to mark this important day (themed My Voice Our Equal future) by holding a Girl-Child talk session on the 12th of October 2020 with female students of two schools, Dadeyo High School, Abule Egba and TonyBee Nursery& Primary School, Alagbado, both in Lagos, Nigeria.

The focus of the message passed was to:

* Campaign against gender-based bias and violence

* Encourage parents/guardians to allow the girl child to attain the highest level of education

* Encourage the girl child to acquire skills towards the futures they choose

* Encourage young girls to Lead as a generation of activists accelerating social change

After the talk session, some of the girls gave a one-minute interview and they shared their ambitions, reflected on their lives as girls, and talked about how the Girl Child should be taken care of at all times.

ChiYoWo also held a one-week Instagram campaign #ChiYoWoGirlsRock which started from 12th October to 18th October 2020 to raise awareness about the life and importance of the Girl Child. People were asked to make 20 seconds video of themselves talking positively about the girl child and sending a word of encouragement to every girl in the world. The videos were posted each day from the 15th of October to the 18th of October on the official Instagram handle of the ChiYoWo Empowerment Initiative, @chiyowoini.

SHOW YOUR SKILLS COMPETITION: Season 1 ends on a high!

As a sequel to a Skills Acquisition Zoom Conference organized by the Children Youth and Women Empowerment Initiative, held in July and August 2020, the Show Your Skill Competition (SYSC) was created to give young Africans between the age of 18 and 35 an opportunity to showcase their various creative skills to the world.

There were over 20 participants in the  SYSC Competition that started on 7th from September to 4th, 2020. The Competition involved people creatively making a one minute video of themselves showcasing their skills and posting it on their Instagram handles. The video posted was reposted by @chiyowoini, the official Instagram handle of ChiYoWo Empowerment Initiative.

The Competition featured footballers, make-up artists, art designers, special effects artists, bead crafters, Ankara crafters, graphic designers, caterers, chefs, singers, rappers, pianists, actors, and many more. It was very engaging as people were eager to view their creative Instagram posts. In total, we had 9,806 views with an average of 322 likes for each repost.

According to the rules of the Competition, the top three contestants with the highest number of likes would emerge as winners of the competition. Therefore, Akindele Boluwatife, a special effects artist came out tops with a total of 1782 likes followed by Nedu Alexander, a footballer with 1349 likes, third place was Udeng Bennet, an art designer with 1000 likes.

The Competition successfully came to a close on Sunday 4th October 2020 with winners rewarded with individual cash prizes of 100USD, 50USD, and 30USD for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place respectively. The Competition generally had great reviews for its maiden edition. We anticipate subsequent editions still to come.

Visit our @chiyowoini Instagram handle to see all the winners and their submissions.