Lad̩e Araba is a popular name in the teens and children world. People who have been touched by her acts of kindness can attest to that.
Lad̩e is a seasoned development finance and project management specialist with 12 years of professional experience and technical adviser to the former minister of finance, Okonjo Iweala.
Chioma and the mixer she made.
Uchechi with the circuit she made.
As technical adviser to the executive secretary of UNECA, Lade advised on policy reforms to strengthen infrastructure development, regional integration, and intra-African trade. Lade, a 2011 recipient of the prestigious Mo Ibrahim Leadership Fellowship discussed with Olajide Adelana of Naij.com at her foundation’s summer camp for the girl-child last week.
Excerpts below:
What is the Visiola Foundation all about?
The Visiola Foundation is specifically geared at empowering girls and young women because they continue to be marginalized in many African communities, where they often have limited access to educational and economic opportunities. This is even more pronounced when you consider low-income communities or rural areas where girls do not have an equal chance of going to school as boys.
My husband and I established the Visiola Foundation with the purpose of empowering girls who are unable to further their education so that they can have a shot at a better life.
Why do you encourage girls to study Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)?
We specifically encourage girls to pursue careers in the STEM fields because of the numerous employment opportunities they offer. . Students pursuing careers in the STEM fields have better employment opportunities, since their skills are critically required to stimulate Nigeria’s growing industrial and manufacturing base. There are a number of employers looking for technical expertise, which they cannot always find locally. So, unfortunately we have a situation where jobs are advertised but the candidates who apply do not always fit the criteria that the employer is looking for. Invariably what happens is that we bring in engineers from overseas and we import technology from overseas to implement projects. This ultimately enables unemployment to fester because the available (and critical) jobs are not being filled by local talent. So what do our graduates do? They either remain unemployed, are effectively underemployed or they find other jobs that do not stimulate them intellectually or enable them to grow professionally.
The Visiola Foundation is therefore working to reverse these negative trends and ensure that girls and women, this valuable socio-economic class that is typically disadvantaged with limited access to well-paying jobs, acquire the types of skills required by industry, and which, they can use to contribute to Nigeria’s (and indeed Africa’s) development.
From your experience, apart from the known barriers to girl-child education, including financial limitations and cultural beliefs, what do you think is another major factor militating against girl child education in Nigeria?
Perhaps we do not have enough role models. If people could see many more successful female STEM professionals, who have fulfilling careers, families, and who contribute positively to society, it would help to break some of the prevailing stereotypes. For instance, when people envision an engineer they still think of a man wearing a hardhat and protective eye wear. What if we could modify that image to include a confident woman, who also has a family and is actively involved in her community. We therefore need to ensure that society in general, but girls in particular have positive role models that they can aspire to become.
How would you describe the response and feedback you get from people since you started the Visiola Foundation?
There are two audiences for the Visiola Foundation. There is the general public, which is excited about our work because what we do is transformational. People love our mission and they buy into our vision. Then there are the beneficiaries, the actual girls whose lives have been transformed. Two of our scholarship recipients are currently serving as facilitators at our STEM Summer Camp. I can tell you that when they first walked into the interview room last year, they were very timid, with their heads bowed and their shoulders slouched. They were even afraid to establish eye contact! But today they sit up straight, their chins up and they speak confidently because we told them that we believe in them; because we gave them the opportunity to have a chance at a better life and they now believe that they can succeed. There is an emotional and psychological change that has taken place in each one of them. Apart from the fact that they are now going to school (and are doing very well), they also believe in themselves because somebody else believed in them enough to invest in their future. This is the same with all of the girls we have been working with and you can even see this phenomenon at work in the summer camp as all of the girls are wearing big smiles.
What are the challenges you have in mentoring these girls?
We work within a number of constraints, funding being one of them. Our target over the next five years is to educate and mentor 1,000 female STEM professionals through our scholarship programme. Through our STEM Summer Camp we are looking at another 500 to 1,000 girls. That is a lot of girls! Another challenge is getting girls and young women to take the risk of pursuing STEM careers because they are afraid of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Hard work is the common denominator in the life of every successful person who maximizes his/her potential. We are working to build the confidence of girls in studying STEM subjects, because if they are determined and work hard, they can master these subjects and become leaders in these fields.
How has the STEM Summer Camp been so far?
It has been an amazing, fun-filled week! We are not just sitting down with textbooks teaching theory, we are actually doing a lot of hands-on activities. On Monday our girls built industrial mixers using mathematical and engineering concepts. On Tuesday, they built electrical circuits using concepts from electronics and physics. On Wednesday, they learnt about computer programming and built programs using Scratch software developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). On Thursday, they built robots! The Visiola Foundation’s STEM Summer Camp is not your average, boring experience. Our girls have learnt so much, all while having a blast! We are deeply grateful to E2 Young Engineers Nigeria and Intel Corporation Nigeria’s She Will Connect Programme for their support in making the camp a huge success!
Some religious fanatics believe that the girl-child should not be educated; they even say that western education is a sin, what is your take on this?
First of all, I think that the government has already started in the right direction with programmes such as the Universal Basic Education (UBE) where every child in Nigeria should be guaranteed basic education from primary school all the way to junior secondary school, and I would even suggest to expand the program to include senior secondary school. In terms of other religious and cultural dimensions, which may have an impact on whether a girl goes to school, I strongly believe that we need to dialogue and create awareness with community leaders about the benefits of investing in girls and women. We need to be progressive as a nation. The truth of the matter is that women account for half of the population, so you cannot expect the community or the country to move forward if you are automatically excluding 50% of the labour force or talent pool simply on the basis of gender. We need to open people’s minds and help them understand that we all need the intellectual acumen, creativity, and strength of our women outside the home. It is not about going against your religious or cultural beliefs. It is about advancing as a community and as a nation. Education is also a basic human right that should not be denied to anyone.
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