Zonta Club of Ibadan I empowers girls through education

The Zonta Club of Ibadan I, Nigeria, believes that education raises women's standard of living in economic, social and health terms to contribute to the ripple of positive change in their community and country. Read more below to learn how the club empowers girls through education.

Keep Girls in School project

During the 2020-2022 biennium, the club provided US$1 million in funding to help continue the education of 12 girls from various secondary schools and higher institutions through its Keep Girls in School project and its scholarships.

On 2 April, the club conducted an awards ceremony to recognize exceptional local female students with scholarships.

STEM Needs Girls project

The STEM Needs Girls project is one of the initiatives of the club. Launched on 14 October 2020 in commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child, the project aims to dispel stereotypes, break cultural norms, close the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math careers and keep more girls in those fields.

Since then, the club has trained more than 200 secondary school girls in coding free of charge to enhance girls' participation in STEM.

The club has also conducted a free STEM workshop for teachers to enhance the teaching of STEM subjects and train them on how to encourage girls to pursue STEM careers. The participants were empowered with skills to integrate technology into STEM teaching, and they learned online and offline simulations, interactive documents for data analysis and virtual laboratories for STEM.