Officials of Sahara Oil in a group picture with the Ghanaian beneficiaries, Zuriel Oduwole (3rd left) and Jocelyn Dumas (3rd right) at Tema Manhean
Leading African and energy conglomerate Sahara Group is partnering Zuriel Oduwole, a young filmmaker and avowed girl-child empowerment advocate, to promote girl-child education and gender equality in Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
This partnership is being implemented under Sahara Group’s Grooming Film Extrapreneurs initiative, with a target to empower 90 girls (30 in each of the three countries) in the art of film making.
Bethel Obioma, Head of Corporate Communications, Sahara Group, commenting on the project, said Zuriel would be coordinating the training sessions slated from January 5 to 17, this year.
“We have had two sessions in Nigeria and this is the first day in Ghana. There would be two sessions in Cote d’Ivoire too and at the end of this. We expect to see a seed of greatness in skills so that they will begin to dream. The girls would be made to go back in groups and come up with documentaries that bother on things in their vicinity so that they could take those stories to the United Nations so that the whole world can actually see while their voice can get even more amplified across the globe. “
“So for us, we are passionate about this because in over 13 countries where we operate, over four continents, the focus has always been “How can we make lives better?” “How can we give wings to the aspirations of people?” and “How can we bring energy?” and this project is one of the ways by which we do that.”
Mr Obioma said after the training, the girls would be grouped into groups of five or six, where they could learn to do things they had been taught by themselves.
“So we will leave a camera behind and there will be a local person working with them. We will also leave a voucher behind where they can communicate with Zuriel to come up with their own stories or documentaries produced by them.”
Jocelyn Dumas, an actress and Tv presenter, is part of the training project in Ghana.