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Help WAAW Foundation To Enroll More Girls Into STEM-based Education

by Milicent Atieno

Help WAAW Foundation To Enroll More Girls Into STEM-based Education

The African girl is still faced with many challenges that should no longer exist in the 21st challenge. Especially girls living in the remote areas of Africa; their parents, guardians and the society in general still hold the notion that the girl’s place is in the kitchen, and as soon as her womanhood begins to appear she is to be married off.

This has led to millions of girls being denied even the opportunity to dream of an education let alone have the opportunity to see the inside of a classroom. So naturally you would expect the number of girls pursuing STEM-based education to be even less. The lucky few who get the opportunity to go to school are also discouraged by the mainstream notion that STEM-based education and career are designated only for the males.

Boost WAAW Foundation To Enrol More Girls Into STEM-based EducationTo address this injustice, one Fem Boss, Unoma Okorafor founded the WAAW Foundation with a mission to see more girls not just enrol to schools but pursue STEM-based education that would lead them to rewarding STEM careers. Okarafor acknowledges how privileged she was by having supporting parents who gave her the opportunity to learn and pursue Computer Engineering. She also acknowledges the other millions of girls who are not so lucky and fall through the cracks simply because their parents and the society do not value the girl-child’s education.

Following up on their last year’s event, the WAAW Foundation is planning yet another event for this summer. They are organizing a week-long residential Robotics and Computing STEM camp for 60 public school secondary girls from across Africa. The event will take place in Lagos, Nigeria with girls in attendance ranging from the ages of 13 to 17 years, all coming from poor backgrounds. Without the WAAW Foundation, these girls would have never had such an opportunity to undertake STEM learning, and the organization is set to make the experience fun, interactive and hands-on. Arming the girls with tools that will spark within them innovation and creativity.

As can be demonstrated by their last year event, WAAW Foundation has shown that girls are just as capable and innovative, and when exposed to the right learning environment, they too can be change makers and innovators. In order to make this event successful, WAAW Foundation is currently running a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo with a goal of raising $10,000 to give scholarship to the girls in order to attend the event free of charge.

Your contribution will go towards catering for the fees involved, which includes: lodging, electricity generators, food, access to computer labs, science kits and Robotics. The organization kindly asks for your contributions via Indiegogo, and help them stand up and push back against negative social views against the girl-child education. Your  contributions will also go a long way in ensuring that the perpetrators of the recent Nigerian girls kidnapping, who presents the extremist ideologies against the girl-child education do not succeed. For more information about the organization and to give your contribution, follow this link.

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