The Chief Executive Officer of Zenith of the Girl Child and Women Initiative Support (ZEGCAWIS), Aishatu Kabu Damboa, has reaffirmed her organisation’s commitment to advancing education, gender inclusion, and community resilience in Borno State through strategic collaboration and engagement with key stakeholders.
Damboa, in a series of activities on Tuesday, met with top government officials, community leaders, and student representatives to discuss ways of improving school enrolment, strengthening educational access, and empowering women through gender-transformative programmes.
She said the day was “hectic but deeply fulfilling,” describing her meeting with the Executive Chairman of her local government, Hon. Ali Muhammad Kauji, as both inspiring and productive.
According to her, discussions centred on community development, education, and improving pupils’ enrolment and retention to ensure 12 years of uninterrupted learning for children across the area.
She commended the chairman for his grassroots-oriented leadership, saying: “Since the displacement of our communities, we have never had a chairman who has connected with the grassroots and remained in the community like him. We can’t thank him enough for taking major steps in rebuilding the resilience of our people.”
Damboa also welcomed participants from four communities in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) and Jere for a Gender Action Learning System (GALs) workshop, organised by the ZEGCAWIS Gender Unit with support from the German Cooperation (GIZ) and co-funded by the European Union.
She explained that the GALs tool is one of the most effective participatory, gender-transformative methods, aimed at empowering men and women to jointly drive change within their communities.
In another engagement, Damboa accompanied the leadership of the Damboa Students Association (DASA) on a courtesy visit to the Vice-Chancellor of Kashim Ibrahim University, Prof. Gutti.
She described the visit as emotional and inspiring, revealing that the Vice-Chancellor had played a crucial role in facilitating her university admission in 2018 after two failed attempts at the University of Maiduguri.
“It was fulfilling to reconnect with him, now as Vice-Chancellor of one of the fastest-growing state-owned universities, while I serve as matron of the students’ association from my community,” she said.
Damboa further held discussions with the State Commissioner for Education on the government’s efforts to increase school enrolment and reduce the number of out-of-school children by 50 per cent before the end of the academic session.
She used the opportunity to call for a legal framework to sustain ongoing initiatives by the Ministries of Education and Women Affairs in promoting menstrual hygiene and dignity for girls.
“We can’t overemphasize the need for a legal framework to sustain these initiatives beyond this administration,” she added.
Damboa disclosed that in the coming weeks, ZEGCAWIS, in collaboration with the Bridge for Women Development Initiative, would intensify community engagement and sensitisation campaigns to encourage parents to enrol their children in school.
“We believe this goal is achievable when all stakeholders, including traditional and religious leaders, work deliberately and collectively to make education accessible and sustainable for every child,” she said.
