The year 2019 has indeed been a marvelous one for W.TEC with so much awards, nominations and emergence as finalist in a couple of award programmes. We are excited about these honours and wish to share them with you:
- NEDIS Recognition Award: W.TEC won the innugural NEDIS Recognisition Awards in the Gender focused education intervention category. The award went to efforts of W.TEC’s She Creates Camp programme for Girls is a summer STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Maths) Camp initiative of W.TEC designed to help Nigerian secondary school girls (13 – 17 years) develop an early interest in computer science, information technology and related careers. NEDIS, is the Education Innovation Summit is an annual educator sector stakeholders’ convening organised and hosted by The Education Partnership (TEP) Centre. The NEDIS Recognition Award for Innovation in Education which is designed to identify and recognise innovative solutions within the education space that addresses identified problems of access, equity and quality in the education sector. The Award serves as a platform to recognise and appreciate education interventions which have evidence of effectiveness, relative advantage over existing solutions and potential for scalability and sustainability.
- Finalist – Girls Voices for Change Contest: one of our contestants for the #girlsvoicesforchange global photography contests, made it to the finalist stage of the contest. From hundreds of talented girls in 20 countries, Omolabake was one of 40 outstanding finalist of the contest. The #girlsvoicesforchange photography contests is a follow-up of the global partnership programme by @girlsvoicesnow whom engaged local NGOs and schools to organize photography workshops for girls, tagged ”Girls Voices for Change”, The aim of this initiative is to empower girls globally with a voice to tell their stories with photography.
- Project of the Month – GlobalGiving Community: For the month of October W.TEC’s She Creates Camp Account on GlobalGiving was honoured with the project of the month status. This recognition is given to projects with high-impact on communities which actively demonstrates a high level of effectiveness and engagement with the GlobalGiving community. Also the project must have in the past provided regular high-quality, substantive, and informative project reports to donors and has the capacity to absorb the generous funding from Project of the Month gifts. The She Creates Camp programme for Girls is an initiative of W.TEC designed to help Nigerian secondary school girls (13 – 17 years) develop an early interest in computer science, information technology and related careers. The camp programme, holds annually from its inception in 2008, providing an avenue to increase the numbers of women working and using technology by dispelling stereotypes of gender-appropriateness of technology, providing information about technology careers and practical applications of technology, presenting female technical role models and providing access to mentorship and emphasizing the importance of education. In 2019 the She Creates Programme by W.TEC held 4- STEAM Camps(Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) with 101 girls across Nigeria in Lagos, Anambra and Kwara States. This was made possible, thanks to donations from the GlobalGiving Community alongside other wonderful sponsors and supporters. We look forward to your kind donations to enable us empower more girls across Nigeria with life changing STEAM skills to boost their socio-economic opportunities in Nigeria.
- Winner – EQUALS in Tech Awards: W.TEC won the 2019 EQUALS in Tech Awards in the Skills category. W.TEC was presented the Equals in Tech Awards for the Skills Category. The Skills prize went to W.TEC for her work in enabling women and girls to become professionals and entrepreneurs in the tech sector (Read more). In September 2019 it was announced that W.TEC made the finalist list for the annual EQUALS in Tech Awards slated for November 2019, finalist, in the ”SKILLS” category. The annual EQUALS in Tech Awards is organized and presented by the EQUALS Global Partnership – a network of 90+ organizations, companies, UN agencies, and research institutions. The Awards recognize groundbreaking initiatives from around the world aimed at bridging the gender digital divide.
- NIRA Presidential Awards: The .ng Presidential Awards are special awards presented by the President of NiRA to individuals and organisations for their contributions to the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) and the growth of the .ng brand.The fourth in the series of the .ng Awards held on Friday 5th July, 2019, at Nelo’s Place Event Centre, 2 Yomi Oshikoya Drive, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. W.TEC was one of winners honoured by the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA) for her contribution to the development of women in Nigeria.The .ng Awards celebrate the achievements and innovation of Nigerian Internet initiatives. The awards promote the Nigerian businesses, individuals, charity, public and private sector organizations which help to make the Internet a more secure, accessible and rewarding experience for all by using .ng domains for their online presence. From March, 2019 to June, 2019, the General Public was encouraged to nominate and vote for worthy companies who use the .ng domain names for their businesses and have promoted the .ng brand.
- The Zero Projects Awards: The Zero Project, an initiative of the Essl Foundation, focuses on the rights of persons with disabilities globally. It provides a platform where the most innovative and effective solutions to problems that persons with disabilities face, are shared. Its sole objective is to assist in creating a world without barriers, based on the Articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. W.TEC’s Inclusive Digital Technology for All was one of the initiative globally was selected for her innovative way in empowering special people living with developmental learning disabilities. W.TEC conducts this program in conjunction with the Children’s Developmental Centre – CDC in Lagos, empowers special people living with developmental learning disabilities with #STEM skills which will enable them take advantage of opportunities technology provides to reintegrate them into daily activities of society.
- ELOY Awards: Our Executive Director Mrs Oreoluwa Lesi, was nominated for the 2019 ELOY (Exquisite Lady of the Year) Awards in the ICT / Technology category. The award is in recognition of women who use science and technology to create a platform offering knowledge, service product or solution to build sustainable businesses. The ELOY Awards is an awards organised for women of excellence and it all began in 2009, a long conceived idea came to life, the Exquisite Lady of the Year (ELOY), the first ever successful award ceremony of its kind was packaged and launched by Exquisite Magazine, led by its publisher, Tewa Onasanya.