International Literacy Day: Foundation Empowers 300 Women

A foundation owned by the wife of the Kaduna State governor, Hadiza Isma el-Rufai, known as Yasmin El-Rufai Foundation (YELF) has impacted 300 women with literacy knowledge.

The founder and executive director of the foundation, Architect el-Rufai who made the disclosure at the 2022 celebration of the international literacy day by the foundation, said the target of the foundation is to help the literacy level of the women who had to withdraw from formal schooling either as a result of adolescent marriage, cultural norms or poverty.

She stressed that the program is basically for every woman who wishes to be empowered and who desires to have their voice is heard.

“I think we are succeeding and we always want to do more. We are impacting on a number of women that had to drop out of school due to early marriage. Some of them their parents cannot pay for their school fees, so we are trying to help them to brush up on their literacy and numeracy level .

“Knowledge is free but you have to know how to access it and that is what we are trying to give them. We are happy so far and we wish we could do more. So far, we have impacted on about 300 women. We use to have about 10 centres and that was when we had funding from the Ford foundation.”

Speaking at the program, the commissioner of Education Halima Lawal represented by Mercy Kude, deputy director public schools in the ministry commended the commitment and determination of the women and their willingness to learn and are learning while urging them to Keep up the good work.

Also, the executive chairman of Kaduna SUBEB and board chairman of the YELF, Alhaji Tijjani Abdullahi represented by the permanent member school management Hon. Samaila Leman and Engr Yusuf Bashir chief executive officer (CEO) Kaduna ICT Hub both commended the women for their interest to be literate and urged them to sustain it.