By Funmilola Gboteku

Lagos, Aug 20, 2024 (NAN) The Women Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) says that since its inception in January 2008, it had, through its various programmes, empowered over 47,000 girls and women.

Mrs Oreoluwa Lesi, the Executive Director and Founder, W.TEC, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a interview on Tuesday in Lagos.

Lesi said: “We started off just focusing on technology, but then over the years, we have broadened to science, technology, engineering, and then maths and arts as well.

“So what we want to do is we want to show the girls how relatable science is in solving day-to-day problems. That way they don’t think it’s something that they just study in school and forget about.

“The long-term goal of the camp is to increase the numbers of Nigerian women and girls working in Science, Technology, Engineering, Design, and Maths-related fields.

“It is also an opportunity to increase the numbers of girls and women using and creating technology for learning, professional, and leadership activities.”

The W.TEC founder said that since 2008 as well it had also trained over 619 girls through its She Creates Camp programme, on artificial Intelligence, electronics and software innovation.

She added that it also trained the girls on some hands-on projects and team building.

According to her, the She Creates Camp, which is a residential science and technology education mentoring programme designed to teach girls in secondary schools, just graduated 19 girls recently.

Lesi said that the girls that were trained were between ages 13 years and 17 years, and they were taught to create useful solutions and technologies for everyday living.

She said that this was done through the application of engineering and scientific concepts, programming, mobile application development, and digital content development.

“During the two-week residential camp, the girls participated in technology workshops on artificial intelligence, electronics and software innovation.

“They also had hands-on projects, team building, career-talk sessions, excursions, entrepreneurial skills, and introduction to marine engineering.

“They were further exposed to recycling and upcycling workshops, introduction to bio-gas, waste management and solar power technology among others,” she said..

Lesi said that to make the camp more practical and fun, the girls went on excursions to both Wecyclers and Sonnex Packaging Nigeria Ltd. in Lagos.

According to her, after the camp the girls are usually surveyed to see if they pursue careers in what they learnt, noting that a lot of progress has been seen over the years.

“We noticed that 67 per cent of the girls are pursuing courses in STEM and 57 per cent are using the skills learnt to make money, “Lesi said.

She said the centre also had the opportunity to train a few boys and also teachers as well in some of the different programmes the NGO hosted annually.

Also speaking, Sweetness Fashipe, one of the participants, said that the two weeks had been a great opportunity to learn different skills .

“In a space of two weeks, I have learnt how to use canvas, which is a form of creative design, arduino blocks and breadboards to create devices that can sense how hot or cold the environment is.

“We also created devices that can sense whether there’s gas, smoke or alcohol in the air and how to make a solar panel that can control both street lights and the houses in a community,” Fashipe said.

Mr Joseph Amoni, a parent of one of the participants, lauded the centre’s initiative to encourage girls to pursue STEM education.

Amoni, however, urged the centre to do more in empowerment of boys as well.

“We also need to pay attention to the male child as well, most of the miscreants we see on the roads today are small boys, who would have been great, if such empowerment opportunities were offered to them, “he said.

NAN reports that this year’s She creates Camp was sponsored by Laureates College, MainOne, QVT Media, Leadway Assurance, and LTT Coastal and Marine Services among others.

NAN