Date Published: 05/26/11

Mrs. Amaechi bags Child Friendly Award

As Nigerian Children mark the 2011 children day celebration, Wife of Rivers State Governor, Dame Judith Amaechi will on Friday receive the Child Friendly Award at a ceremony to be put together by the Rivers State Children Parliament and the Ministry of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation in Port Harcourt.

The award on Mrs Judith Amaechi is in recognition of her effort towards the development and protection of the rights of the Nigerian child.

According to a letter from the Children Parliament, the governor’s wife was lauded for giving the children a pride of place through the kindergarten education initiated in the state, and playing significant roles in the passage and domestication of the child rights acts in the state.

Mrs Amaechi through her NGO, the Empowerment Support Initiative has established model nursery schools in the 319 wards of the state and championed an advocacy campaign to encourage major stakeholders especially the rich and influential Nigerians to adopt the education of the less privilege and indigent children in the society.

The ESI last October organized the first national kindergarten conference in Nigeria declared open by President Goodluck Jonathan to complement the federal government in arresting the dwindling fortune of education and to encourage early learning in the Nigerian child.

The governor’s wife who recently in the United State of America was conferred with an exemplary African Woman Leadership Award by the International Institute of Management Las Vegas Nevada in recognition of her contribution to the development and empowerment of women and children, has also initiated a “feed a child” project to offer quality and balanced diet to children in the early childhood education and development programme in the state to encourage and promote learning and assimilative ability that will also encourage physical growth, good health being, and learning capacity.

Already 350 pupils who pioneered the nursery schools have graduated.