Her Future Conference; organized by FAME to celebrate International Day of the Girl-child 2020. This is in line with this year’s theme by UN Women; “My Voice, Our Equal Future”.

The conference was aimed at encouraging and empowering girls towards a brighter future. Girl leaders across sectors such sports, academic, etc were speakers at the event. They were able to speak and inspire other girls through their talks.

The conference held in a virtual space due to the covid-19 pandemic and was streamed live on Facebook,which provide a better platform to reach out to a wider range of girls and other interested participants.

The event started with the national anthem and the recitation of the second stanza as opening prayer. Opening remarks was given by Ms. Aderonke Ogunleye-Bello. She stated that she was excited to see young girls taking the initiative and leading their voices to the public. She also looked forward to seeing them as great leaders of tomorrow.

Ms. Oluwatoni moderated the conference session and started by introducing the speakers. After was, Meloseri Dumnoi, she is the first female ChanjaDatti Youth Ambassador. She spoke on “girls as change-makers” and encouraged girls to believe in, improve themselves and also be confident. She also added girls should take up position where they can make a change in the society.

The next speaker, Mrs. Chidi Koldsweat; Lead Strategist, Donors for Africa Foundation gave a speech saying that “the more you start taking responsibilities, you tend to discover more skills within you”. Also do not limit yourself and give your best in every decision you take.

Following this was Pastor Sarah Olubi-Johnson, Founder of Lifeforte. She sent an audio speech and in her speech she emphasized the need for young girls to unlock and utilize the great potentials within them. Furthermore, she encouraged girls to strive to be the best in whatever they do and by so doing they become great leaders of tomorrow because being a leader is a reward/by-product of living a consistent life of purpose. She added that good character, integrity and humility are the building blocks of a good leader. “Service is the key that unlock leadership”, she stated.

Moving on, Ahoua Akassy Blessing, current head-girl of Olumawu School delivered a wonderful talk. She spoke on reasons why girls should lead, highlighting some of the points. Girls should lead because they have the ability to solve problems and provide long lasting solutions, they respond to crisis simultaneously, they can multi-task and handle crisis better due to their nature as care givers. She ended with this quote,”We need to change the notion that boys are better than girls because this is the true recipe for change”.

Temilade Adelakun, a graduate from University of Ibadan. She’s one of the four Nigerians accepted for the 2020 Havard Business school crossroads emerging leaders program. She gave a short yet powerful speech on why girls should lead. She stated that when we support a girls, we invest in the future of the whole community. She added that to achieve SDG5, we need to start empowering girls around the world.

The next speaker, Oreoluwa Fawole, a young leader in sports specifically swimming, started with an inspiring story on her sports journey and challenges. She stated some challenges young people face in the aspect of sports with the mindset as the major limiting factor for young girls lack of participation in sports. She added that self discouragement and lack of support from the society is a huge challenge for girls. She encouraged girls to believe and be confident in themselves. She noted that creating awareness and stakeholders providing adequate sports facilities will go a long way in encouraging girls in sports.

Moving on to the last speaker, Mrs. Ebhodaghe Josephine; Principal of Fosla Academy, an institution that combines academic education with football. She encouraged girls to participate in sports, forget failures and move on. She stated that, “the future is bright for women in sports, all you need is doggedness, courage and confidence”.

A questions and answers session ensued after the last speaker then participants gave their feedback on what they have learnt from the conference.

The conference ended with a closing remark with Ms. Oluwatoni thanking the speakers and participants for attending the conference.

Watch now!!! Her Future Conference on Facebook