Education and Relief Initiative (EDRI) has called for technology to be made more accessible for all girls in rural areas in Nigeria.

The nonprofit, which encourages and supports education in the grassroots, made the call as the world marked the 2021 International Day of the Girl Child.

Observed every 11 October, the International Day of the Girl Child is a global observance declared by the United Nations to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights.

The theme of this year’s International Day of the Girl Child, ‘Digital Generation, Our Generation’, highlights the diverse digital realities for girls.

Over 50 percent of Nigerian women do not have access to the internet, while 20 percent are less likely than men to own smartphones, data from the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) shows.

With the goal of making technology and education more accessible for girls in rural areas, the nonprofit organised a computer training for girls in August 2021, according to the EDRI founder and Project Director, Priscilla Okereke.

‘Accessing the internet [for girls], should not [be] seen as luxury, owning gadgets that aid learning should not be made impossible’, she told Development Diaries.

‘At EDRI, we are committed to bridging the computer literacy gap in the grassroots, these we do by advocating for, and ensuring that girls have access to the internet’.

She revealed that EDRI uses the OPPIA e-learning App to introduce adolescent girls to technology and increase access to the internet in rural community schools.

Photo source: EDRI