Nigerian Success at Special Olympics
https://sportsration.com/2019/03/23/breakdown-of-how-team-nigeria-won-64-medals-at-the-special-olympics-in-dubai/?fbclid=IwAR1lX8XFL-nC6wcQodt5jdqUCSEhVzcbXkc803vSl_n8OeQOM_OFPng9ADw
I wrote last time about my friend Joanne’s student Tayei who won a gold medal in the 25-meter race at the Special Olympics in Abu Dhabi.
Yesterday Joanne posted the photo of the Nigerians as they returned home. The article from Sportsration.com says, “The Nigerian delegation at Abu Dhabi consisted of 46 athletes, 14 Unified Partners including persons without intellectual disabilities, 23 officials, and a medical doctor.”
Ikem in training for Special Olympics
The delegation was welcomed in Ikoyi, Lagos, by Victor Osibodu, Chairman, Special Olympics Nigeria. He said, “the Nigerian contingent at the Games was worthy of celebration, after their ‘magnificent achievements’ in Abu Dhabi,” according to Punch newspaper.
My daughter’s reaction to the news in my last post? “In a few years, Ikem [their 5-year old autistic son] will compete!”
His picture is from July 2018 at the Westport Beach playground.
Investing in Women is Essential
My husband Clem certainly wouldn’t call himself a feminist. This morning I was reading an opinion piece from Sunday’s New York Times Week in Review. It was written by the novelist R. O. Kwon.
Stop Calling Asian Women Adorable is the title of the piece, with the sub-heading, “When I’m at work I want to talk about work. Not my hair or skin.”
Kwon describes a few of the many, many times people have told her how cute or adorable she is. This at professional events and academic settings!
“Try to imagine someone commenting on a white male writer’s appearance during his Q. and A. Try to imagine having his appearance repeatedly brought up in a professional setting, as though it’s the part of him that matters most,” she wrote.
Clem couldn’t understand why it is demeaning for an Asian woman to be told she is cute, in a business setting! He sometimes asks why there is so much focus on the “special” needs of women.
So I was happy when he sent me a link to this piece about the importance of investing in women in Africa!
The event was the U.S. – Africa Trade and Investment Forum in Addis Ababa. An opening panel said, “The economic rationale is compelling, given that 60% of the non-agricultural part of African economies are run by women.”
“Research has shown that gender is a huge driver of inequality, and is acting as a significant drag on broader macro-economic performance. If Africa cuts inequality levels to those seen in Asia, GDP would grow an extra 1% a year, or 33% faster than the average for the last several years. The biggest barriers are laws that discriminate in areas such as inheritance and educational access.”
Breaking Barriers to Girls’ Education
Our cousin Akaoma Onyemelukwe has been working on this issue for years. Though she’s not addressing the laws in her work right now, she is breaking barriers to educational access.
She wrote about a curriculum review she facilitated recently to enhance girls’ ability to go to school and stay in school.
Akaoma at the curriculum review, in the center
“Supporting the achievement of sustainable development goals in education and gender has been a long life effort. It’s been exciting to see more girls from deprived communities making a decision to acquire education.
Building leadership and life skills in girls in 5 northern states in Nigeria has been an exciting experience of changing lives, improving enrolment, retention and completion of primary education.
Last week, I led the technical team and facilitators to review the curriculum with insight from the rich experience of reaching girls. . . in over 1000 schools. New elements were introduced and refined for greater engagement.
Highlighting the transformational impact of these leadership and life skills trainings helped us to renew our resolve to build up people, especially girls and women, by breaking barriers to education and empowering them.
Excited to be adding value… Contributing immensely to achieving sustainable development goals across sectors.”
I’m proud of Akaoma’s work and delighted to read about it.
Children: Our Treasure – Our Future: Rescheduled
I received an email from the United Nations Association of Connecticut with the subject line Children: Our Treasure – Our Future: Rescheduled.
The issues are serious and deserve exposure. I’m sure the program will be interesting.
I don’t know why the event date was changed, but I couldn’t help smiling at the thought of rescheduled children!
Seal at Compo by Mike Giunta
Westport Wildlife
Dan Woog posted twice today about an unusual wildlife sighting in Westport.
The photo was on Dan’s second blog post about this friendly seal!
