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.

Spotlight Initiative Nigeria Organizes 3--Day Orientation Workshop for Implementation Partners

A 3-Day Orientation Workshop was organized in Lagos by the Spotlight Initiative Nigeria working in collaboration with Spotlight Global, for its implementation partners. Participant States were Lagos, Ebonyi, Adamawa, Cross River, FCT and Sokoto.

Some of the participants at the workshop

The training sessions aimed at exchanging ideas, sharing of knowledge and experiences, brought together key government ministries, selected Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Recipient UN Organizations (RUNOs). The sessions also gave the much needed opportunity to network. During the training sessions, participants were intimated on the project deleverables, targets, implementation arrangements, reporting/financial reporting requirements. The project start-up workshops supported the development of a results-oriented, state-specific CSO workplans from the already approved Spotlight Initiative (SI) 2019 workplans. Save Our Needy was one of the CSOs selected to participate at the workshop. The organization was represented by its Founder/CEO, Marvella Odili.

Marvella Odili (L) at the workshop

Adetutu Ajibodu, Centre Manager, WARIF (L) with Marvella Odili

Marvella Odili, Founder/CEO, Save Our Needy at the workshop

Marvella Odili

Marvella Odili

 

Patience, UN Women (middle)

The Communications trainer at the workshop

The Spotlight Initiative, a joint initiative of the EU-UN, is centred on the theme, Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls. The initiative aims to support the transformative change on the ground to end violence against women and girls, and harmful practices, in numerous countries globally. Nigeria is one of the eight countries in the African region selected to benefit from the Spotlight Initiative. It is anchored in the UN Sustainable Development Partnership Framework (UNSDPF) 2018-2022 and is implemented by five UN agencies (UN Women, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNFPA and UNDP), the Government of Nigeria, including federal and State governments and Civil Society. 

#SpotlightEndViolence #SpotlightNG

Mr. Kwasi emphasizing on a point

François Hollande honours Marvella Odili

Founder and CEO of Save Our Needy Organisation, Marvella Odili, was honored with the French International Prize for her laudable work to ending extreme poverty in Africa through education and economic empowerment on April 18th. Her project, "Connecting Marginalized Women To Technology and Development" was selected as one of the 5 winners of the French International Prize which promotes women entrepreneurship, leadership, and technology.

Marvella thus became the first Nigerian to be honored with the Prize.

Marvella Odili (L) with François Hollande, ex- President of France

François Hollande with the 5 laureats of the French International Prize

François Hollande making an exceptional and inspiring speech

Marvella Odili making a speech about her project

L-R: Essivi Brigitte, Flora Ghebali, Marvella Odili, Sonia Nare and Nina Ratsirarson

L-R: Nina Ratsirarson, Sarah Allion, Sonia Nare, Marvella Odili, Chekeba Hachemi and Essivi Brigtte

Marvella Odili networking with some of the invited guests

Through her project, Marvella has empowered underserved young women with knowledge and skills in ICT, digital technology, entrepreneurship, and leadership. 

L-R:Members of Fondation La France S'Engage Team with the laureats

Essivi Brigitte Acakpo-Addra making a speech about her project

Well laid-out reception table

Reception day

With this award, Marvella who has implemented her project in Lagos, Oyo and Delta States will be able to expand her project to reach other geo-political zones in Nigeria particularly Northern Nigeria.

Marvella Odili

Her award was presented to her by François Hollande, ex-President of France and President of Fondation La France S'engage (FFE) who gave an exceptional speech during the award reception ceremony at Paris.

Marvella Odili with Roxanne Varza, Head of F Station and Margaret Prize winner 2018.

L-R: Nina Ratsirarson, Sonia Nare, Essivi Brigitte Acakpo-Addra and Marvella Odili

L-R: Marvella Odili, François Hollande, Essivi Brigitte, Sonia Nare and Nina Ratsirarson

L-R: Marvella Odili, François Hollande, Essivi Brigitte, Sonia Nare and Nina Ratsirarson

Other winners of the Prize are Nina Ratsirarson from Madagascar, Chekeba Hachemi from Afghanistan, Essivi Brigitte Acakpo-Addra from Togo and Sonia Nare from Burkina Faso.

Tech Girls Gets Nominated for World Summit On The Information Society Prizes 2019.

Tech Girls, a project designed to empower marginalized and vulnerable adolescent girls with ICT and digital skills, encourage girls to enroll in STEM subjects as well as provide them with mentorship support, has been nominated for the World Summit On The Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2019.

The project initiated by Save Our Needy, has empowered more than 250 girls in Nigeria since 2017 to date.

WSIS Prizes is a unique international contest developed to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognize individuals, governments, civil society, local, regional and international agencies, research institutions and private-sector companies for outstanding success in implementing development oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of development.  

The WSIS Prizes contest serves as the platform for identifying and showcasing the success stories across the WSIS Action Lines defined in the Geneva Plan of Action and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also provides us with models that can be replicated in the interests of empowering the community at the local level, providing everyone with an opportunity to participate in the contest and, most importantly, recognizing the efforts made by stakeholders to contribute to the development of society and their commitment to achievement of both the WSIS goals and SDGs.

Please we need your vote for Tech Girls to be selected among the winning projects.

Steps To Vote:

1. Go to the following link: https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/stocktaking/Prizes/2019/Vote

2. Register as a new user

3. Log in to your account

 4. Go to Vote and then click on “Voting Form”

5. Vote in each of 18 categories (only then is your vote valid!) That means you start by voting in category AL C1. 

Tech Girls has been nominated in the category 3 - AL C3. 

Kindly note that there is another Tech-Girls, a project in Charlottesville, USA and another Tech Girls Advocacy Program in other categories. PLEASE kindly ensure that you vote for Tech Girls, a project in Nigeria CATEGORY 3- AL C3.

Together, we can empower more girls with technology and digital skills in Nigeria!

THANK YOU!

#WSIS  #ICT4SDG

Nigeria Makes Great Strides In Healthcare

The house of representatives has passed a bill authorising free healthcare for pregnant women in the country.

The bill seeks to mandate free antenatal and postnatal health services to pregnant women in government hospitals.

Sponsored by Tony Nwoye from Anambra state, the bill was presented at plenary on Thursday.

If passed into law, women would be able to receive up to three months of free medical services after child delivery.

During previous debates on the bill, Nwoye had explained it would also address discrimination against pregnant women in their place of work.

He said the bill would ensure that every pregnant woman in the country is registered in a government hospital within three months of conception.

“Funding for the programmes for the bill is expected to come from funds earmarked for the basic healthcare provision fund and statutory provisions from the federal budget,” he said.


Culled from Cable

Save Our Needy Helps Marginalized Women Break The Cycle of Poverty

Participants receiving training on craftswork

In present day Nigeria, many women face a lot of economic challenges and this is even more evident because a lot of women are the breadwinners in their households. Many women are teetering precariously on the brink of lifelong poverty as a result of illiteracy, unemployment and gender inequality issues. 

The craftswork trainer at work

Save Our Needy believes that women should be given every opportunity to fulfill their potential, no matter their circumstances. They should be organized and strengthened. Investing in women’s economic empowerment will lead to realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of ending hunger, poverty, promoting economic empowerment and gender equality as all these cannot be achieved without empowering women with a means of livelihood.

During the craftswork training

Lifting women out of poverty is one of the most effective antidotes to the nation’s pressing problems. Women play a special role in the society by contributing not only to family well-being, but to community well-being as a whole.

Project SAVE (Skills Acquisition Vocational training and Empowerment) was initiated to help underserved women become self-sufficient through vocational training and economic empowerment. Through this initiative, the organization gives free training on income-generating skills to marginalized and vulnerable women as well as provides them with the necessary equipment to start their own small businesses at the end of the training.

A participant trying her hands on making recycled ankara sandals

Save Our Needy reached out to 30 women living in Ajegunle/Orile (an urban slum) to freely train them on catering (the making of finger foods) and craftwork which involves the use of a local fabric (Ankara) to produce or recycle items such as bags and footwear.

Participants were also trained on financial literacy skills, leadership skills and entrepreneurship skills. These skills will prepare them for their new small businesses.

 

During the craftswork training

Participants engrossed in making finger foods

During the catering class

Cocktails made by participants of the program

During the leadership, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills class

The project was very successful and all the participants all had wonderful encomiums to pour on the SON team after 5 weeks of intensive training by experts.

Ankara-made bags

 

Recycled bag and sandal made from ankara fabric

Finger foods and cocktails ready for consumption

Since inception, Save Our Needy (SON) has successfully implemented empowerment and entrepreneurship programs aimed at encouraging women and young people to become financially independent.

#EmpowerAWomanEmpowerANation