By Harrison Arubu
Abuja – A pan-African youth organisation, Youngstars Development Initiative (YDI), on Friday in Abuja inaugurated a 30-day programme designed to boost the self-esteem of young women in the continent.
The initiative, tagged: “Female and More Self-Esteem and Leadership Project’’, is part of activities by YDI to mark the 2019 International Women’s Day.
The Executive Director of the organisation, Mr Kingsley Bangwell, told newsmen that the programme was aimed at building the confidence of young African women to think big and realise their potential.
Bangwell said that participants would also get a chance to improve their personal leadership capacity by initiating a 90-day Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) impact challenge to address women issues.
According to him, this is in line with the SDG 5, which seeks gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, among others.
He said that the idea sprouted from a “Female Self-Esteem Survey’’ conducted by YDI on 4,500 young women in 40 African countries.
He said that the result indicated that low-self esteem was a major inhibiting factor among women with 50 per cent of the respondents admitting they were affected.
“This is an online programme where young women from over 45 African countries will be inspired to believe in themselves, set goals and then take practical steps to achieve them.
“Everyday, they will read the story of a great and inspiring woman, and then answer five questions on how that story is impacting them.
“Over 3,200 young women have signed up and started, and at the end of the 30 days, these participants are going to write what we call ‘Bold to Greatness’.
“This means that it should be based on what you have learnt, how have you been inspired to think of a great future?
“So, write that goal that you want to pursue over the next five to 10 years, and commit yourself to pursuing it,” Bangwell said.
With the programme, YDI seeks to show females that they can be anything, thus emboldening them to break all forms of barriers, according to him.
“Once you have a mental barrier that women cannot succeed here, or these are areas women should not venture into, even if the opportunity is there, you will not venture.
“So, we are trying to break that barrier and help women to have an open mind, the consciousness that says, ‘I can pursue anything if I work hard enough,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event featured a panel discussion on the subject `Young Women and Inclusion’.
The panelists, including the Chief Executive Officer of Clean Tech Hub, Mrs Ifeoma Malo, advised women to develop themselves, set goals, map out strategies and take bold steps.
Malo emphasised the need for consistency and doggedness among women, especially those involved in politics. (NAN)