Mary Chibuzo Ekemezie

Education - Nigeria (West Africa)

 

In South-East Nigeria, young women face many challenges. While industrialisation has had positive effects - bringing industry and money to different villages - it has also brought some disadvantages for those young women and teenage girls who are most vulnerable.

Mary currently works as a facilitator with NIA, Ndu Ike Akunuba, an NGO working with and empowering young women in South Eastern Nigeria. The project seeks to increase the spirit of volunteerism amongst young women while at the same time offering them a space to learn and network.

In addition, Mary’s been trainer of “Computer Skills for Life” through the acquisition of computer literacy skills, a computer literacy project aimed at equipping young women aged 16-28 years with basic computer literacy skills. Mary would like to continue her work with young people in rural areas, branching out from IT into other education-gap areas such as English, Maths, sciences and agriculture. Mary’s plan has the aim of reducing the wealth and living standard gap between urban and rural youths, as well as mixing the two groups towards better understanding

Mary states that, “by equipping young women with these skills, we empower them to achieve their highest potential. In my role as a facilitator, I have been able to influence many young women to look to the future and think of ways to contribute to their society. Already, I am amazed at former students who are embarking on their own ambitious projects. Women not yet 19 are actively thinking of ways to improve the lives of other young people around them and get the best for their community.”

By being involved in changing the mindsets of women in her community, Mary is encouraging women to look to a brighter future.

"Gender inequities have not made it particularly difficult for me to attract women to participate in the training. In fact it has been an attraction. The women who participate in the project are glad they have such an opportunity to learn and acquire these skills. The challenge has been for them to be willing to serve as volunteer trainers after acquiring the skills. Another challenge has been to ensure the regular attendance and punctuality to the programme. 

I have faced some resistance from men who want to know why the training is exclusively for girls and one or two older women (mothers) have questioned the rationale behind the girls’ only rule. But apart from these, the young women and other women in general have been happy about the prospect and have publicized the project by telling their daughters, friends’ colleagues etc. about the programme."

 

Case Study: Women’s Resources

Mary has established a computer training course for young women in Enugu, Nigeria. After beneficiaries have completed their training, they serve as volunteer trainers. Her project is part of the work of Ndu, Ike, Akunuba (Life, Strength, Wealth).  

Since the inception of the project, about fifty (50) young women have participated in the project. Some ten (10) of them have fulfilled the criteria for graduation and served as volunteer trainers. 

It has been challenging working around the school calendar introducing new packages to the already existing ones being offered, raising funds to ensure the sustainability of the project, creating publicity for the project, dealing with the poor percentage of persons paying back and serving as volunteer trainers, power outages and breakdown of computer and other equipment. The initial starting grant has been exhausted and I have to devise a means of sustaining the project, raise funds to meet overhead costs, work around the disappointment of the beneficiaries not coming back to give back and still keep the centre functioning and attaining the aims and objectives of the project.

To overcome these challenges, I have embarked on fundraising to raise funds to enable me pay outstanding costs on the repairs of the computers and awareness drive to create publicity for the project. I have also taken advantage of the NIA website and newsletters to increase publicity for the project. I am also trying to establish a business unit that will generate funds to take care of overhead costs and other miscellaneous expenses.

I am currently experimenting with the idea of paying some remuneration to volunteer trainers and hope it will improve willingness to participate and am also considering partnerships with other organizations(women based)  to create publicity. I have also moved to another computer expert to mange our computers and bought additional UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) units to check fluctuations and damages due to power outages. It is a constant challenge trying to overcome problems and issues that have cropped up.

My monitoring and evaluation strategies include the following:

I have a pre evaluation form that the participants fill once they start classes. This indicates their level of proficiency with the computer, how they found out about the project, whether they had any previous volunteer experience and why they wanted to participate in the project. This form helped me know what they needed, whether the changes in publicity in strategy were working and whether they understood the concept of volunteerism. I also had a post evaluation form that enables me assess whether their expectations were met, the difference in their levels of proficiency with the computer from when they started and what can be improved to make the project better. The feed back from this section has shown me that there is a need to introduce a package on designing and am still working on that, and am constantly introducing new ideas based on best practices I have observed elsewhere.

The strategy has led to some visible level of behaviour change. The beneficiaries are no longer afraid or doubtful of their abilities. They are trying to acquire as many skills as possible, have tried to improve on what they have learnt and are putting it into practice. They use the internet for research, have open their own emails and are also helping others acquire these skills in various ways. I have received amazing feedback from some of the young women who have passed through the training programme. Although not the percentage I expected, but it has been encouraging feedback all the same.

For some of them, participation in the project has made them more conscious of the ways in which they can help in their own immediate environment.

One of the participants has become more active in the local clubs and organizations in school which she belongs to and is encouraging other young women around her to try and acquire these skills. Another beneficiary has come back to train others even after she has completed her pay back.

Sustaining this new behaviour in the beneficiaries is a challenge although it is the true test of whether the project has attained some of its aims. To ensure the sustainability of this new behaviour will require some many factors. The beneficiaries have to be willing to internalize these new ideas and concepts by putting them into practice. On my own part I have to encourage them that it is worthwhile and make the idea attractive. I have also resorted to introducing them to NIA and giving recommendations about their willing to serve. I am hoping this will serve as an incentive for them to choose to sustain the new behaviour.

The fact that the training centre is based in an urban area, has limited the scope of people we can reach. Young women who live in rural area have found the cost of transport an inhibiting factor and so we have not been able to attract more of them to benefit in the project. My school timetable and studies has also made training dependent on my timetable.

Besides, the percentages of girls who have done pay back have been minimal and so it depends on me and on the few girls who have returned to do their pay back. This of course has implications for the future of the centre and what we can achieve. There is only so much we can do (with fewer volunteers than I assumed we would have) and we cannot fully achieve our aims.

This is also a challenge I am constantly working on.  One of the reasons why there have been such a poor percentage of beneficiaries who come to give back is because of time constraints. Majority of the beneficiaries are in school and the challenge for them is how to combine school work and their volunteer requirements. But there is also the factor that it is not a part of the culture they are used to so they are not too willing to make the sacrifices.

Gender inequities have not made it particularly difficult for me to attract women to participate in the training. In fact it has been an attraction. The women who participate in the project are glad they have such an opportunity to learn and acquire these skills. The challenge has been for them to be willing to serve as volunteer trainers after acquiring the skills. Another challenge has been to ensure the regular attendance and punctuality to the programme. 

I have faced some resistance from men who want to know why the training is exclusively for girls and one or two older women (mothers) have questioned the rationale behind the girls’ only rule. But apart from these, the young women and other women in general have been happy about the prospect and have publicized the project by telling their daughters, friends’ colleagues etc. about the programme.