Group to train 1000 African girls in fashion designing, modelling

Mrs Gedah Etefia, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Church Girl Foundation, an NGO, says the organisation is set to train 1000 African girls in areas of fashion designing, modelling.

Etefia, disclosed this during an interactive session with journalists in Calabar, on Thursday.

She said the foundation, in collaboration with another NGO, Pink Africa Foundation, has concluded plans to also empower and mentor the girls in make-up artistry and others, in one year.

According to her, many African girls fail to realise their potentials due to lack of mentorship, and that only a few of them succeed after compromising standards.

She said her group decided to bridge this gap because the African girl was talented and had the potential to compete with her contemporaries globally if properly mentored and equipped in various vocations and trade.

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Etefia said from October, the girls between the ages of four and 42 years would gain skills that would also include catering and music.

She said the NGO aimed at building a community of girls who would believe in themselves and have faith in God, and not use their bodies to succeed in life.

“We intend doing this by having a Church girl fashion week in October, a talent week created to identify and project fashion designers, models and make-up artists within the scope of the word.

“This will be an annual programme, and through it, we will mentor aspiring designers, models and artists to become successful and compete globally without compromising standards or their faith.

“Also, we will have a two-day conference titled “Running Vision on Heels’’, where successful and influential women will teach girls the principles of success by combining, work, family life and faith.

“In addition, we have an online and print magazine, called the Church Girl Magazine, which runs quarterly with the aim of educating, inspiring and projecting the African girl,’’ the CEO said.

Etefia who is also a pastor added that apart from several programmes they had carried out in the past to empower girls, the group was currently running free six weeks intensive training of girls in fashion designing.

She, however, said that the major challenge of the group was lack of sponsorship from individuals and corporate organisations.

“Many companies are afraid of sponsoring religious programmes for fear of being tagged religious.

“We are not restricting our services to a particular religion as we have done a lot even in Muslim communities in Cross River, where we tested over 400 women for cervical cancer some time ago,’’ she said.

“So we are calling on corporate organisations and well-meaning Nigerians to come out and support these programmes to empower the African girl-child to maximise her God-given potentials and succeed.”