By Foday Moriba Conteh
As part of their efforts towards contributing to the popularization of the Gender Empowerment Bill 2021 as well as women’s participation and leadership in governance and politics in the country, Pixaweb Technologies Ltd with supports from UN-Women Sierra Leone on Friday 19th November, 2021 certified 80 young people, out of which 55 were female and 25 male, on coding and animation primarily for the purpose of popularizing the Gender Empowerment Bill.
The certification ceremony was held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Freetown in the wake of the 80 aforementioned young people who completed 2 weeks of physical training and 2 weeks of a virtual mentorship programme on coding and animation.
Representative from UN-Women Sierra Leone, Ms. Setcheme Mongbo, stated that the intensive training has empowered these 80 youths to acquire requisite skills in digital coding and animation, stating that besides the dissemination of theories on innovation, the youths were also guided to test their new innovative skills by developing advocacy tools and messages towards the popularization of the Gender Empowerment Bill, 2021 as well as to promote positive gender norms towards women’s political participation and leadership.
She described the training as an investment which will contribute directly towards increasing the responsibilities of the youth, their ability to make responsible decisions, making them politically viable and economically productive.
“The engagement of young people through training and inter-generational exchanges are crucial for the advancement of Gender Equality Agenda, revitalizing the commitments made in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995, localizing CEDAW and the Protocol of Maputo,” she maintained.
Ms. Setcheme Mongbo used the opportunity to congratulate the beneficiaries on their achievements and urged them to go out to be successful digital entrepreneurs and strong advocates of inclusion.
“My gratitude also goes to our partner Pixaweb and their trainers for delivering this digital expertise to the youths within the time frame. My profound gratitude goes to H.E. President Dr. Julius Maada Bio for his visionary leadership, for championing the Gender Bill and all other initiatives in support of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. As we watch these knowledge and skills, let’s all think about how best we can even more reduce unemployment among young people and help them actualize their dreams and aspirations as they are our present and our future,” she underscored.
Ms. Setcheme Mongbo ended by stating that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), remains committed to working with the Government machinery, CSOs, the diplomatic community, the media and the private sector to ensure that the youths will increasingly be gender equality drivers while achieving noble aspirations.
On her part, the CEO of Pixaweb Technologies (SL), Ltd Priscilla Okechukwu said that Pixaweb Technologies (SL), with support from UN-WOMEN Sierra Leone, organized a Four (4) weeks training on Coding and Animation geared towards developing and empowering youths, within the age brackets of 13 to 35, through intensive digital skills training so that they can showcase their creativities and innovations in line with creating a positive awareness and to promote women’s participation and leadership in governance and politics in Sierra Leone.
She maintained that the training has equipped the participants with Digital skills, Animation and Coding knowledge that will help them use technology to develop campaign videos, information dissemination, gain visibility on social media, proffer solutions to problems in their communities, have the right exposure to life and politics, strengthen their ability to lead and to voice out their opinions, influence the effectiveness of public governance, and to support older women’s participation in governance and that the men amongst them will use the Coding Knowledge to advocate for equality between men and women and to contribute to women’s political participation and leadership.
She concluded by commending the UN Women team for their support in making the training programme come to fruition and turned out to be successful.
In his keynote address, the Commissioner of the National Youth Commission (NAYCOM), Ngolo Thomas Katta, commended UN Women Sierra Leone and Pixaweb Technologies Ltd for empowering young people with knowledge on coding and animation.
He described the training as a milestone in the process of empowering young people in the country stating how he is of the strong conviction that these young people will use the Digital skills, Animation and Coding knowledge they have acquired towards the Popularization of the Gender Empowerment Bill.
Ngolo Thomas Katta noted that the gender empowerment bill is a progressive bill that should be passed into law as it gives the opportunity for the larger chunk of the country’s population (women) to rise up to occasions towards making Sierra Leone a better place.
Giving her testimony, one of the beneficiaries, Mary Kabay expressed appreciation to UN Women Sierra Leone and Pixaweb Technologies Ltd for empowering them with knowledge on coding and animation of which she assured all that they will put the acquired knowledge into practice and good use.
She added that they will use the animation and coding knowledge to develop campaign videos, for information dissemination, gain visibility on social media, for the Popularization of the Gender Empowerment Bill 2021 and above all proffer solutions to problems in their communities.
