Celebrating International Women's Day 2023

Happy International Women's Day!!! This year’s theme, "DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality", is in alliance with Save Our Needy's passion and purpose.

This year, International Women's Day celebrates the contributions of the women and girls committed to building gender-responsive innovations and advancing innovation and digital technology.

Over the years, we have initiated and successfully implemented technology-related projects that have empowered both marginalized women and girls and given them the opportunity to not only gain financial freedom but break ceilings. Projects namely "Connecting Marginalized Women to Technology and Development", "Tech Girls" and "Girls Up" have been instrumental to creating transformative change through the use of technology, advancing innovation and promoting gender equality.

With less than 10 years to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we still have a lot to do in order to close the huge gender digital divide. We need to demystify the notion that women cannot be leaders in technology. Together, we can close the digital gender gap!

Marvella Odili Is A Speaker/Panelist At The Paris Peace Forum

We cannot talk about sustainable development without talking about women empowerment. Women have the unique power to reshape societies. "There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women"- Kofi Annan As a panelist at the session “Breaking the glass ceiling: for a feminist and inclusive digital economy” at the recently concluded 5th edition of the Paris Peace Forum, our Founder/CEO, Marvella Odili had the opportunity to talk about women's economic empowerment and how digital skills will open doors for more marginalized women. The panel moderated by Alexandre STUTZMANN, Director, Parliamentary Relations with the UN Delegation of the European Union to the UN, shed more light on the inclusivity of women and the important role they have to play in the society and the world at large today.

Paris Peace Forum: For Multilateral Solutions and a More Inclusive World

Founder/CEO of Save Our Needy Organisation, Marvella Odili, was invited to the 5th edition of the Paris Peace Forum held Nov 11th-12th at the Palais Brongniart, the first in-person forum since after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequent restrictions to present her project, "Project Empower."

In a world requiring more collective action to "ride out the multi-crisis" we face in the world today, the Paris Peace Forum is a platform open to those seeking to develop coordination, rules and capacities to answer global problems.

The forum explored ways to mitigate the multiple shocks by fostering a renewed cooperative world order and multilateralism as well as launching transnational issues, solutions and debates.

This year, the Space for Solutions showcased 60 projects tackling issues at the core of the 5th edition.

The global event gave opportunities for sharing of ideas, collaboration and networking among participants and guests.

"Girls Up Project" Launched

We launched the "Girls Up" project in October to promote girl-child education and empowerment.

In-school and out-of-school girls are selected from marginalized communities and empowered with ICT and digital skills particularly coding skills, and leadership skills to develop their capacity to earn a sustainable income through the use of technology and become changemakers in their communities.

Ajegunle, a major slum in Lagos State is the choice for this project.

New France-Africa Summit: A New Beginning, A New Partnership

From Paris to Montpellier, France, it was a week of activities from October 4th to October 10th for our Founder/CEO, Marvella Odili, who was invited by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the French Embassy, Nigeria to participate in 3 major events: Ambition Africa, The Bpifrance Inno Génération (BIG) and The New Africa-France Summit hosted by President Emmanuel Macron.

Entrepreneurs, artists, creators, researchers, captains of industry, technocrats, innovators, students, sports personalities and NGOs from France and all over Africa came together under one platform to brainstorm, share ideas and collaborate on the New France-Africa partnership where civil society will take centre stage.

For President Emmanuel Macron, France must assume its fair share of "Africanness" noting that nearly 7 million French people are intimately linked to Africa.

He reiterated France's pledge to return artworks that were looted from the Abomey Palace in Benin at the end of the 19th century.

During this working visit to France, Marvella talked about her work on the empowerment of marginalized women and the education of marginalized girls to people from all walks of life.

She was fortunate to meet the incoming France Ambassador to Nigeria who was gracious enough to take pictures with her.

It was also a time to rediscover Paris and discover Montpellier.

Suffice it to say, it was truly a great learning and exchange experience; an unforgettable one.

What Next For Nigeria After #EndSARS Protests?

In October, Nigeria witnessed a historic protest led by youths clamoring for the total disbandment of a special unit of the police force known as SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad). SARS was initiated to curb crime particularly robbery in Nigeria in the 90s. However, the unit became known as a terror squad notorious for violating the rights of innocent citizens especially youths and women through extrajudicial killings, rape, extortion, kidnapping, intimidation, and even robbery.

 

 

The #EndSARS hashtag which trended worldwide for weeks had the support of international lawmakers, celebrities, and sportspeople including Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Kanye West,  Rihanna, Drake, Trey Songs, Janet Jackson, Celine Dion, Tammy Abraham, Antonio Rudiger, and a host of others. 

 

 

For the first time in Nigerian history, Nigerian celebrities from the entertainment and sports industry all over the world including Falz, Runtown, DJ Switch,  Wizkid, Davido, John Boyega, Jude Ighalo, John Ogu, and a host of others, actively participated in the protest to #ENDSARS and end police brutality.

 

The Nigerian government responded by disbanding SARS and immediately creating SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics). This did not go down well with the protesters who insisted it was just a change of name and not a full reformation of the unit. They backed up their claims with proof that SARS has been disbanded three times in the last 3 years but they only came back worse.

 

 

 

The leaderless protest which went on peacefully for almost three weeks grew to include other issues affecting youths such as bad governance, injustice, and impunity. 

 

 

 

As one voice, the youths all over Nigeria implored the Nigerian government to take real action to end police brutality, bad governance, increasing poverty, injustice, and impunity.

 

Despite the attacks on peaceful protesters by hoodlums alleged to be sponsored by the government to disrupt the protests, protests continued all over Nigeria.

 

 

 

 

On October 20th, peaceful and unarmed protesters at the Lekki toll gate, Lagos, were allegedly attacked and shot at by security forces leading to the death of some protesters. Many others were injured and some maimed in the process. Hoodlums took advantage of the chaos to unleash violence and looting in the State in subsequent days. 

 

 

Judicial panels of inquiry have been set up in multiple states in Nigeria to investigate cases of police brutality and possibly compensate families. However, it remains to be seen if the government will keep its word.

 

 

Since the protests died down, #EndSARS protesters have been witch-hunted by the government alleging sponsored terrorism. Cases of frozen bank accounts,  arrest from homes, and seizure of passports to stop traveling, have been trending on social media. These acts are quite contradictory to the promises made by the Nigerian government to listen to the cry of the youths. 

 

 

It is a month after the unfortunate incident at Lekki and an investigative report by CNN has confirmed the attack on peaceful protesters at Lekki tollgate. Sadly though, no one has been persecuted yet for this attack. 

 

The question now is what next for Nigeria after the #EndSARS protests?