Nigeria, the African most populated country is credited to have the highest growth rate among the top ten most populous countries of the world.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2022 reported that about 10 million children in Nigeria are out-of-school. And of this number over 60 percent (6 million) of them are girls.
Evolve, a non-profit organisation initiative is focused on educating the girl-child as an effective tool in tackling climate change and environmental degradation globally.
Umesh Amamani, managing director of Pacegate Limited, disclosed during a media brief held recently at Polaris house boardroom, Alausa – Ikeja, Lagos that the initiative is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of Adipro International Company tailored toward giving back to the society.
Amamani explained that the idea was born out of the lessons he got from a study called drawdown held by scientists in the United States of America in 2019 to proffer solutions to that will reverse global warming.
“The girl-child education initiative was launched based on the project Drawdown report to address global warming by focusing on educating the girl child.
“In the past twenty-five years, the global community has learned that nurturing the ambition of each girl can shape the future of all. Women with more years of education have fewer and healthier children and actively manage their productive health. Education also helps to equip women to face the most dramatic climatic changes,” he said.
The founder of the initiative maintained that when you educate a girl-child, you have given her a career, and this will in turn help maximise her life and subsequent manage child bearing affairs well.
“Children are responsibility, and educating the female child is a key way to prepare her for this responsibility,” he noted.
With this idea, Amamani explained that the initiative decided to partner with top industry players such as Polaris |Bank, OVH Energy Marketing (NNPLC Ltd), Bic and Crownstar to carry out charity endeavours with the goal of empowering female pupils through educational programmes and vital school supplies to combat the worldwide challenge of climate change.
Godwin Ejeh, general manager in charge of operations at Pacegate shared how the initiative has been able to provide school uniforms and essential school needs for more than 4,000 girls across the country.
“Evolve has a clear mandate using S-connect approaches adapted from Heartfulness Institute Hyderabad. Through the S-connect, the initiative reaches out to educational institutions mostly secondary schools across the country by providing female students with basic school supplies in line with the mission to tackle climate change by empowering the girl-child.
“Since its inception, Evolve in collaboration with all of its partners has donated school supplies including school uniforms, sandals, notebooks, pens, and bags to over 10,000 female students in 32 schools across 9 states in the country,” Ejeh said.
Furthermore, he explained that the organisation embraced a value-based education initiative in its S-Connect where teachers are trained on to transfer knowledge in the 21st century education space, which started in 2022 with 18 teachers and six schools already reached.
Bamidele Esther, one of the beneficiaries from Omole Senior Grammar School in Ikeja expressed her joy and appreciated the initiative for saving her from being a drop-out.
“I was about to go back to Abeokuta in Ogun State to stay with my parents when my guardian could not afford to provide my school needs before the intervention of Evolve.
“And I knew that if I had gone back to my parents that would have been the end of my academic goal. My desire to become a lawyer would have been mutilated,” she said.
Margaret Olurunyomi, a director at Lagos State ministry of education applauded the initiative for its efforts to curb the number of girl children that would have been out of school by clothing and providing for their school needs.
Tokunboh George-Taylor, managing director at Hill and Knowlton Strategies, Nigeria stressed that the initiative’s focus is on supporting underprivileged girls, especially with school supplies.
She advocated for crowdfunding platforms to enable the team to achieve more and reach many rural areas across the country.
