Debo Akinbami
The charitable intervention of the wife of Ondo state governor, Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, through the Bemore Empowered Girls’ Foundation, a non-governmental institution, has reached new heights.The all-girls, two-week boot camp of extensive training in ICT, Solar Technology and other life-enhancing skills made new attractions.
Since its founding in 2017, the scheme has recorded five successful outings, each with a touch of difference. The last boot camp, held August, in Akure, brought rare impressions. Underlined by new energies and improved rate of subscription, its luster loomed larger. Even as as brand, Bemore parades appealing trappings, a forceful shape for what it does. In every way imaginable, it exudes value.
Its charge- bridging widened gender parity gap in Science and Technology, Engineering, Mathematics plus Entrepreneurship (STEM+E) has made plausible impacts, the way its credible deliveries have been widely applauded. The roaring, prodigious testimonies are positive to the extent that it has steadily plunged critical gaps. That every household seeks to enlist own daughter speaks to the distinct difference attained.
Maybe a new knowledge, as it were, or that a hitherto obscure beauty unveiled. There is a new awakening, it appears, in guardians about the need to adopt a new approach to girl child training. For those who parent by default, Bemore, with results, is fast proving that times have changed! The task has never been more delicate than now, hence the need to be deliberate.
Besides the deliquent tendencies of adolescence, the exuberance and accompanying indiscriminate risks of the transitional phase would bother a parent. And the worries are more for girl children for the obvious reasons, since they interrelate within incautious and highly complex mix, often with little or no safeguard. While it lasts, companies are kept, albeit carelessly, and in no time, habits fast formed that could make or mar the girl.
Even now, many a youth take to strange habits. Fraud and drugs become the voguish, ruinous twin with ravenous influence. Yet, Bemore is already steps ahead in fixing the worries. It brought on board the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) – the institution charged with eliminating the growing, processing, manufacturing, selling, exporting, use and trafficking of hard drugs, to forewarn the malleable girls.
Helped by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the girls profusely profited from lessons on child trafficking, labour or sexual exploitation, its inherent dangers and the benefits of abstention. In its offerings, Ondo State Agency Against Gender-Based Violence (OSAA-GBV) sensitised Bemore girls on gender-based violations, violence Against Persons and the legal implications, all to broadened horizons and fortify them.
Wont to take unbeaten paths, the founder enlisted special citizens, who could not afford the training, particularly the hearing impaired girls admitted to the boot camp at no cost, to prove a point. It was darling feature of the last summer boot camp and a special attraction. Their enthusiasm and dexterity at training were a testament to the power of vision, giving out the initiator as truly masterly.
As she builds the girl children, Betty is building for them a befitting, permanent abode they all can call a home; an ideal place to concieve, create and nurture great ideas and hone emerging talents. Haven for generations of Bemore alumni who would preserve and prosper this huge legacy of freedom of the girl child from persistent poverty, protracted silence and servitude.
Through Bemore, the goal to keep the girl child safe, sound and secured is sealed. The idea of helping to improve on their lives while enabling them to make meaningful socio-economic contributions to their communities continues to sprout new imports. On the whole, and by the new additions, Bemore is not just lifting our girls, it is changing the story.
***Debo Akinbami, Special Assistant to the Governor of Ondo State on New Media & Archives, writes from Alagbaka Akure.