Dabiri-Erewa To Launch Women-Empowerment Network On Saturday
Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), will on Saturday present to
the Public the Aspire Women Network project during the 2020 Happy
Conference.
Abuja is an assembly for women of all ages to share experiences with one
another, to finding happiness while fulfilling their purpose in life, as
women.
Dabiri-Erewa stressed that the women folks are clamouring for equitable
opportunity to complement their male counterparts in all helms of
affairs, especially in politics.
The Chairman of NiDCOM added that women are by nature multi-tasking,
with the mandate of building, uniting the home, the society and by
extension, the nation as a whole.
She stated that women always support each other, countering the
fallacious assumption that women do not support each other.
In the words of G.D. Anderson: “Feminism isn’t about making women
stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the
world perceives that strength”.
Therefore, in what will go down as a historic intergenerational
conference for women, the Aspire Women Forum (AWF), an NGO is hosting
the “Happy Conference 2020” with the theme, “A Woman: My Purpose”.
At a news conference in Abuja, the President of the NGO, Barr. Zainab
Buba Marwa, stated that the AWF’s Happy Conference 2020 is designed for
women to find both happiness and purpose-fulfilment in their chosen
endeavours.
She said that research had shown that there is a “deep surge of suicide,
murder, despondency, hopelessness and drug abuse among women.
According to the AWF President, one in four drug abusers in Nigeria is a
woman, coupled with the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown exposed
the alarming numbers of domestic and gender-based violence, especially
against women.
The Happy Conference 2020 is created to foster dialogue among women of
all ages as encouraged by the Beijing Platform for Action, ‘where the
older generation will share their financial, emotional and spiritual
(FES) regimen and their experiences in discovering their purpose, with
the younger participants’.
While the younger participants on the other hand, who have excelled in
various fields will share stories, that will inspire other participants.
The upcoming event is expected to draw a large number of participants
and will have notable women from media, healthcare, governance,
leadership and others as part of the panel.
The Aspire Women Forum (AWF) is a non-profit, non-religious,
non-partisan organisation based in Nigeria, with the vision to be the
foremost forum for igniting gender equity by advocating and engaging in
areas of Motivational Behavioural Coaching (MBC), and inclusive politics
advocacy through knowledge impartation and financial inclusion, which in
the words of the NGO’s Founder, “a forum of women, for women, by
women”.
Expected guests and keynote speakers at the event include the First
Lady, Dr. (Mrs) Aisha Muhammadu Buhari; Dame Pauline Tallen, Minister of
Women Affairs; Chief (Mrs) Moji Makanjuola, veteran broadcaster and ED,
International Society of Media in Public Health; Maimuna Abubakar,
Founder, Tozaki TV/Magazine and the Chairman of NiPOST; and Ene Obi,
Action Aid Representative.