Field Initiative
Sensitization and mentorship for rural women and girls around Abidjan — putting before them the questions that anyone with an open future has the right to be asked.
Saturday, 5 December 2020
On Saturday, December 5, 2020, an IIAS Youth Ambassador interning at the Office of the President executed a sensitization activity with rural women — particularly girls — in areas around Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire.
Many of the participants were underage mothers with no role models in their immediate environment. The work of the sensitization was, at its simplest, to put before them the questions that anyone with an open future has the right to be asked: what do you want to learn? what do you want to become? what does your community need that you might one day provide?
Country Representative
Cote D'Ivoire Representative · IIAS Girl Child Advocacy
Ms. Rita Boidou represents IIAS Girl Child Advocacy and Social Services in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire. She graduated from the IIAS Africanization Program and serves as African Youth Ambassador.
Her additional appointment as Editorial Officer of the African Scholars Digest places her at the intersection of field practice and continental scholarship — exactly the kind of working-scholar role the Institute exists to cultivate.
The Institute remains committed to mentoring rural women and girls across the continent.
If you live in or near the Abidjan area — or in any other location where this work is needed — we welcome your involvement. The capacity of the next generation of African women to step into their own futures is, very directly, a capacity the Institute exists to enlarge.
Sign up with the IIAS Membership Directorate to become a mentor to a young rural woman. Both formal scholars and working professionals are welcome — and the work is open across the continent, not only in Cote D'Ivoire.
