The Chinese Community in Nigeria in collaboration with Hua Xing Arts Troupe Nigeria and Harmony Culture Office of China General Chamber of Commerce in Nigeria, on Sunday, organised a symposium to celebrate the 2023 International Women’s Day.
The symposium themed ‘Dedication to the Society and Embrace Equity’, was aimed at celebrating women’s achievements, raising awareness and creating opportunities that drive gender disparity.
The community also doled out financial gifts to the Bethesda Home for the Blind as scholarship for its students.
In his welcome address, the chairman of the Chinese Industrial and Commercial Enterprise Association, Dr Eric Ni, said that women are special creatures whose resilience and hard work must be continually celebrated.
Ni said: “Today is a special day for us as Chinese Community in Nigeria, as we honour our women for their hard-work and dedication.
“Women are powerful and beautiful creatures but they are regarded as weaker than men, while they are blessed with power of creating life.
“Let us accelerate equality initiative in all we do, let us also work towards creating a world where all women can thrive and fulfil their potential, and ensure gender equality and empowerment remains a priority.”
Director, Office of the Chinese Consulate General in Lagos, Zheng Yong, who hailed women on the celebration of the International Women’s Day, urged all to embrace equity and work toward a future where women become more valued and respected.
Also speaking at the event, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Chioma Ajunwa, who is Nigeria’s first Olympic gold medalist, said that in spite of women’s efforts toward nation building was being sabotaged, women must not relent in their quest to transform the society.
Ajunwa said taking a critical look at the Sports industry, women had truly blaised the trail and such achievements must be upheld and consciously built on.
She urged the men and government at all levels to give full support to women to further contribute to nation building as deliberate efforts were also taken to celebrate women.
“Men do not really celebrate their women well enough, they feel threatened by the achievements of the women but this should not be, we all should be able to have healthy relationship while contributing our quota to nation building,” she said.
On her part, Managing Director, Goge Africa, Mrs Nneka Isaac-Moses, who identified the strategic roles women had played in the society, urged the Federal Government to further encourage women participation in leadership positions.
Isaac-Moses said: “We observed that women are not given equal opportunities as the men deliberately to guide against women taking over in virtually all aspects of human endeavour because the potential of the women have been noticed.
“This is the time and age when we should jettison all form of bias and allow women to engage their God given potential to nurture and develop the society.
“As women, we should consciously engage in training and retraining in all aspects of human endeavour to allow us contribute maximally to the growth of the nation,” she said.
Also, the vice chairperson of the Chinese women association in Nigeria, Loi Eng-Koon urged all to work in finding innovative solutions to help women unleash their human capital and respect for the women.
Eng-Koon said: “If you want to be respected, let us respect the other person’s feeling, once they feel that they are being respected, they will treat us the same way back and we must also ensure that all women have access to the same opportunities and resources as men”.
The Chinese community donated N500,000 to the Bethesda Home for the Blind as scholarship and no fewer than 100 Chinese and Nigerian women were in attendance, while there were colourful cultural presentations by the Chinese community like the Lion and Waist drum dance.
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