– Says project will encourage girl child education
As part of its effort towards the education of girl-child in Nigeria, the national headquarters of Al-Mu’minaat (the believing women) organisation has awarded scholarships to five female indigent pupils.
The faith-based female organisation announced on Saturday at the flagged-off ceremony of the scholarship programme, held in Lagos, Southwest, Nigeria.
The lucky pupils are Zainab Omolumo, Aisha AbdulGanny, Zainab Dhikrullah, Mobururah Alabi and Aisha Ahmed.
The National Amirah, Hajia Nimatallahi AbdulQadir disclosed that five pupils will be sponsored through basic primary education in four Al-Mu’minaat schools across four local government areas in Lagos State.
“Today we’re giving scholarships to 5 indigent girl children between ages 5 to 8 years. We’re trying to sponsor their basic education,” she said, adding, “Al-Mu’minaat being a faith-based female organization, we believe it’s appropriate to start the scholarship project with girls.”
Speaking further, Hajia AbdulQadir said the project was informed by the saying of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), which said, “When you educate a girl, you have educated a nation”, stressing that it’s also a way of reducing the high rate of out of school female children in Nigeria.
Muslim News findings revealed that more than 50 percent of girls in Nigeria are not attending school at the basic education level.
According to 2023 figures released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 7.6 million girls are out of school (OOS) in Nigeria – 3.9 million at the primary and 3.7 million at the junior secondary level.
Amirah, however, believes that the project, which is expected to extend to other States, would complement the government’s effort to provide education to girl children and bring everlasting peace to society.
She said, “We believe government alone cannot do it. That’s why we want to support them in giving education to the girl-child so that at the end of the day, society will be peaceful since we know that the girls are going to be wives, mothers and professionals in society. We think our organization too should align with the government to give these helping hands to these indigent girl children.
Amirah Al-Mu’minaat revealed that the project will expand to provide quality education to every girl child in both primary, secondary and tertiary institutions of learning in Nigeria.
“This is just the beginning. In sha Allah we’re hoping to continue the scholarship project every year and go beyond the basic education shortly,” she said.
She, therefore, called on the government, private and individuals who believe in the education of girl children to support the project.
In a chat with Muslim News, the national Educational Officer, Hajia Khadijah AbdusSalam congratulated the beneficiaries whom she said went through written exams and oral interviews.
According to her, “We plan to sponsor some students through basic primary education. It’s part of the advancement of the programme, which started a month ago. We intend to help the parents who are not able to pay the pupils’ school fees as well as to help those smart pupils.
“27 of them did the exam and after the examination, we selected 7. Out of the 7, we did the final screening and 5 were finally chosen. And for now, it’s for basic education. From primary 1 to 6. And we’re starting from Lagos state at all Al-Mu’minaat schools. We call them the Future Hope. We have in Agege, Oshodi-Isolo, Somolu and Mushin. So, from the 4 schools, we picked 5 of them.
“With time, we will extend the project to other States. We pray they don’t change their religion at the end of the day,” she added.
The kids and their parents couldn’t hide their excitement as they praised the organization, which is also involved in humanitarian and empowerment of women.
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