Int’l Day of girls, women in science: Helpline harps on enabling environment

By Usman Shuaibu

An Abuja based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Helpline Foundation for the Needy has called on government to encourage the girl child, by providing all necessary facilities to foster enabling environment, so as to increase access for girls and women education and participation in various fields of science.

Also, the Foundation while urging parents to encourage their girls to study science related subjects, equally called on teachers to devote their time to teach the girl child and concentrate more on them.

This call was made on the heels of the commemoration of the the 7th United Nations’ International Day for Girls and Women in science, with the Theme: Equal Access and participation in science for girls in acceleration progress towards national development.”

The NGO, in partnership with Make a Difference for the Needy Foundation and Association of Wives of Traditional Rulers in FCT, at the weekend organised an awareness and interactive session for school girls and women, as part of activities to mark the day in Abuja.

In her welcome address, President and founder of the NGO, Dr. Jumai Ahmadu, stressed the need for donor agencies to maintain gender equality and inclusiveness in grants giving and scholarships, so that girls and women can maximise their potentials in science.

Ahmadu, who spoke through Onoja Arome Godwin, Coordinator , Special Programme of the Foundation, noted that a significant gender gap has persisted throughout the years at all levels of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines all over the world. 

She added that even though women have made tremendous progress towards increasing their participation in higher education, they are still under-represented in the STEM fields.

According to her, “A brief rundown of the statistical position of women in research fields of science to educate you more to mention only four observations women are typically given smaller research grants than their male colleagues and, while they represent 33.3% of all researchers, only 12% of members of natural science academies are women.In cutting edge fields such as artificial intelligence, only one in five professionals (22%) is a woman. 

“Despite a shortage of skills in most of the technological fields driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, women still account for only 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of graduates in computer science and informatics. Female researchers tend to have shorter, less well-paid careers”.

Furthermore, she explained that girls and women irrespective of how oppressed their situations are, have been participating and contributing to national development from the scientific angles since the beginning of the awareness campaigns. 

“However, we cannot reduce this awareness, because we are seeing some little results for as long as we live we must continue to encourage our feminine gender to study science through it rigours and making them know that becoming a scientist does not correlate with gender issues but a ready mind.  

“On our part as a woman led Organisation, we have instituted a programme we call Voice of the girls’ parliament, which has been running for years now to nurture the girl child on all aspects of life, including encouraging them to participate in academics and making choices in science related careers. This program has generated allot of success in the lives of our girls and we hope to do more with your support”, she stressed.

The event which featured talks on STEM product development and design, was graced by a handful of women and hundreds of  female students drawn from some public and private schools across the nation’s capital.