At just 14, Zuriel is quietly building a powerful coalition of Female World Leaders to take on the education and other global challenges head on
MON, FEBRUARY 13 2017-Fourteen year old Girl Education Advocate, Film Maker and Presidential Interviewer – Zuriel Oduwole, has continued her remarkable journey of elevation and inspiration, with her various projects across the world. This time, her focus is on Europe.
Having recently been honored by the US Secretary of State – John Kerry last month in Washington DC, it was the President of Croatia Her. Excellency Kolinda Grabar – Kitarovic, whom she next shared the global stage with.
A history maker herself, who became her country’s first female leader in February 2015 and the youngest at 46, the President was eager to hear about Zuriel’s projects, and how her initiatives could be replicated in Croatia. She liked her basic ‘Film Making 101’ class program for unemployed youths, which Zuriel has now successfully developed in several African countries, including Kenya, Mauritius and in Namibia where it was launched. “I have been looking forward to meeting you”, President Kolinda Graber told Zuriel. “I read about you and I am very, very proud of your achievements”. And then you are a Girl, she said with excitement !
At just 14, Zuriel is quietly building a powerful coalition of Female World Leaders to take on the education and other global challenges head on. She has so far met one-on-one with the Presidents of Liberia, Malta, and now Croatia – all female heads of government, as well as 21 other world leaders from Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Pacific Region. Some of these include the leaders of Tanzania, South Sudan, Jamaica, Lesotho, Guyana, Cape Verde, Kenya, St Kitts & Nevis, Vanuatu, Mauritius, Malawi, Samoa, Guinea, Tuvalu, St Vincent & The Grenadines, and Nigeria’s last two leaders; President Goodluck Jonathan [in 2013] and President Muhammadu Buhari [in 2016].
The out of school children challenge across the globe of which Nigeria alone has more than 10 million, has dominated world affairs since the Millennium Development Goals [MDG] were agreed in 2000, now morphed into the sustainable Development Goals extended by the United Nations to the year 2030. Though she is just one person, Zuriel has managed to find simple, childlike but practical ideas to dealing with aspects of this, including her recent skill transfer initiative, which was commended by Secretary of State John Kerry last month. In September 2016, Zuriel was invited to speak at the UN, in New York.
She makes the country Nigeria, the continent Africa, and indeed youths around the word very proud.
