The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC), Lagos, on Wednesday said that the centre trained no fewer than 1,400 women and girls on technology programmes in 2019.
The Centre’s Communication officer made this known in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.
Newsmen report that W.TEC is a Nigerian non-profit organisation focused on encouraging girls to pursue technology careers and also supporting women to use technology for entrepreneurship and to speak about issues affecting their lives.
Odutola said that, the training of women and girls was done through the centre’s technology camps, after school clubs and other programmes.
He noted that the centre was able to train those number of girls through the various training programmes held last year.
“One of the major achievements of W.TEC in 2019 was the expansion of its “She Creates’’ camps to four camps across the nation.
The ‘’She Creates’’ camp was a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM)-centred summer training programme for girls between 13 years and 17 years.
It was held in Lagos, Kwara and Anambra with a total of 103 girls in attendance.
“During the camps, the girls participated in technology workshops and leadership activities,” he said.
The communication officer said that an early innovators camp was also organised for children between five years and 10 years while a total of 37 children were in attendance.
“The early innovators camp is a non-residential camp designed to harness the innate curiosity of children by introducing them to computing and science concepts through play and exploration.
“This training gives children early inspiration to solving significant problems around them by exploring information and communication technology (ICTs).
He said that other achievements in 2019 included 16 Days of Activism Workshop for 500 Secondary school girls, which took place in Lagos, Kwara and Ogun.
Odutola also said that the NGO hosted STEAMHer Series a partnership programme with United Nations Information Centre (UNIC), Lagos.
“We had two workshops for the STEAMHer series and 200 school girls attended in Lagos.
“W.TEC also organised an inclusive Technology programme for special people living with developmental learning disabilities.
“The programme was done in partnership with Children’s Developmental Centre (CDC) in Surulere, Lagos, for children between three years and six years, seven and 12 years and also adolescent of 18 years and above, ” he said.
Odutola said that 400 girls in 14 schools in Kwara and 120 girls in two schools in Ogun were trained in W.TEC Academy, an after school computer programme for girls in public secondary schools in 2019.
He said that the programme was concurrently done only in Kwara State and Ogun States.
Speaking on the centre’s plan for 2020, Mrs Oreoluwa Lesi, the Executive Director of W.TEC, said that the focus this year would be to expand the camps to more states in other to train more girls in ICT.
“We plan to scale up our She Creates camp from four to five camps in four states, hopefully with one in the North.
“With an additional camp we will be able to train up to 150 girls as against 103 in 2019.
“The early innovators camp would also be expanded to accommodate as many as 50 children,” she said.
Lesi said that the W.TEC Academy was currently running in Kwara and Ogun while Lagos would be included this year.
She noted that including Lagos would give the centre the opportunity to train additional 100 girls in public schools.
“Our 16 Days of Activism campaign in 2020 is also planned to be more aggressive online to share more information to women on internet safety.
“The inclusive technology programme for children with developmental learning disabilities will feature more sessions on robotics.
“This will engage the students with more hands on technological classes to build their potential talents and skills,” the director said.
NAN
