Zuriel Oduwole

Zuriel Oduwole was born in Los Angeles, California in July 2002. Her first venture into media and advocacy was in 2012 when she entered a school competition with a documentary film about Africa titled The Ghana Revolution.[12] For this she conducted her first presidential interviews, when she met with two former presidents of Ghana: Jerry Rawlings and John Kufuor.

In 2013, after the release of her documentary film titled The 1963 OAU Formation, Zuriel Oduwole was profiled in Forbes Magazine.[13] As part of this second documentary, she interviewed the President of Malawi ( Joyce Banda ), the President of Tanzania ( Jakaya Kikwete ) and the President of Mauritius ( Rakeshwar Purryag ). In March 2013, Oduwole formally started a project called "Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up", a campaign which was first launched at the Lagos Business School's Pan-Atlantic University, for the advocacy and promotion of girl-child education in Africa.^[28]

In 2014 at age 12, her self-produced documentary film titled A Promising Africa was screened in five countries.[3] On 21 April 2014, Oduwole was listed as the most Powerful 11 year old in the world by New York Business Insider's in their listing of "World's Most Powerful Person at Every Age".[14] In February 2015, Elle Magazine listed her in their annual feature of "33 Women Who Changed The World", alongside Fed Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and President of General Motors, Mary Barra.[15]

UNIVERSITY SPEECHES & EARLY ENGAGEMENTS

The University of Pretoria in South Africa [aka TUKS] invited her to speak to their student body in March 2015 as a film maker, to give the students an insight into how to communicate and tell the story of global events, from a specific perspective – as part of their Humanities series.[16]

In April 2015, the Ivy League's Columbia University in New York, U.S invited her as a featured speaker at their African Economic Forum conference, as well as a segment panelist, to speak about the potentials of the new Africa.[17][18]

President Alpha Conde of Guinea met and spoke with Zuriel in May 2015, as part of an information documentary she was doing on the Ebola Virus, which started in his country Guinea [before ravaging Sierra Leone and Liberia] to understand the impact on the economies of the region, as well as the effect on children's education. President Conde was her 15th world leader she would meet to talk about pertinent and pressing issues.[19]

As part of their global #LikeAGirl campaign to shore up girls confidence as they entered adolescence, global giant Procter & Gamble engaged Zuriel in June 2015 to create a short documentary about the education of girls about puberty, and the support needed during this period of their lives. She wrote, narrated and produced the video for the campaign with the theme Unstoppable Like A Girl.[20][21]

While attending global events during the 70th United Nations General Assembly session in New York in September 2015, she met David A. Granger, the President of Guyana on the sidelines of the General Assembly, to speak about the disputed Esequiba Oil territory.[22]

In December 2015, she formally launched her DUSUSU Foundation aimed at building partnerships with corporation and individuals, to develop the education capabilities of children, but especially the girl child, across the globe.[23] As a film maker, she launched her film making 101 Initiative for youths in Windhoek, Namibia in March 2016 [24] and Lagos, Nigeria in June 2016, teaching some of Africa's poorest children basic film making skills, so they have practical skills they can use in gainful or self-employment, as young adults.[25][26]

In April 2016 at age 13, she was invited as the keynote speaker at the annual Maryland State Department of Education's Early Childhood Educational conference at Ocean City, Maryland, addressing more than 600 adult delegates on how she sees the education of future US leaders developing.[27] Later in June 2016, she was invited as the featured speaker as well as a panelist at the annual Women in Entertainment Luncheon, in Los Angeles, California, U.S.[28]

Zuriel Oduwole Arrives at 2015 SAFTA Film Awards Johannesburg - SA

The Guardian Newspaper in late June 2016 signed her on as a Columnist to share her insight on issues as seen by a younger generation and giving her a section and segment for periodic writing.[29][30] She became a TEDx circuit speaker when she headlined the TEDx Gbagada event in July 2016 as the featured speaker, talking about the inter-connectivity between the past and future generations.[31][32]

UN EVENTS: EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON EDUCATION

At the 71st United Nations [UN] General Assembly events in New York in September 2016, Zuriel was invited to speak on how the effects of climate change is significantly affecting the education of children in the Pacific Island region. She met to discuss these issues afterwards with the Prime Minister of Samoa - H.E. Tuilaepa Malielegaoi and the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, H.E. Enele Sopoaga. She was invited to meet the new Jamaica Prime Minister - H.E. Andrew Holness, to understand how Global Warming is affecting countries in the Caribbean region also.[33] As President of the COP23 in Bonn, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji shared the challenges his country faced with rising flood waters with Zuriel, asking her to use her documentaries to share with the world the plight of children in the pacific islands [34]

TRT World news interviewed and featured her on their Newsmakers section after her participation at the UN events [35]

In October 2016, she met with her 23rd World Leader, the President of Malta Her Excellency Mary Louise Preca, to share her ideas on building a network of female world leaders to tackle the issue of "out of school children", especially girls, around the world.[36]

As part of activities to commemorate their 11th annual Kreole festival from November 22–25, the government of Mauritius invited Zuriel Oduwole to be the special guest for the years events. Apart from being a judge for the film competition during the festival chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Luc Duval, she taught 150 underprivileged children basic film making skills from the Port Louis municipality as a film maker herself, and was a guest at the African night concert at the country's Citadel center in Port Louis along with Zambian First Lady, H.E. Esther Lungu [37][38][39]

OPEN ADVOCACY FOR GIRLS EDUCATION AND THE YOUTH VOICE

On January 11, 2017 the Rt Hon John Kerry met Zuriel in Washington DC to commend her for what he called her 'clarity of purpose' in recognizing a major global developmental issue - Girls Education, and taking on the challenge head on. He also lauded her film making class for unemployed youths, which he said was making a tangible difference.

In February 2015, President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic of Croatia met with Zuriel Oduwole to commend her work on Girls Education and to learn how her basic 'Film Making 101' skill transfer programs could make a difference for the youth in Croatia.[40][41][42][43]

Forbes Afrique featured Zuriel for their February 2017 [Fevrier 2017] issue. The magazine introduced her DUSUSU Foundation and its evolving partnerships with development groups on the continent, such as the Dangote Foundation, for her Gender Development and Skill transfer project initiatives [44][45]

Zuriel visited Mexico as an Education Ambassador, speaking to 350 youths in Mexico State and Hidalgo State and taking them through her basic Film Making 101 Class, already conducted in 4 other countries. The City of Pachuca - in Hidalgo state then honored her with an Award and Citation for her global work in the area of Education Development and Girls Equality advocacy[46] President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana met with Zuriel in June 2018 in Accra, and commended her for her basic film class projects to benefit the young girls in his country.[47] Zuriel believes that in a digital age of social media and the new economy, learning the art of digital communications and motion picture communications puts girls at an advantage in tackling their own unemployment, as they would have skills they can use effectively in a matter of weeks.

The UN in September 2000 launched the first set of MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] with 8 development goals by 2015, including eradicating extreme poverty, gender equality, and universal primary education. Because the UN did not set an age limit or overall criteria on partnerships aimed at accomplishing these goals, Zuriel saw an opportunity to participate in processes that moved the gender equality needle forward, especially on the African continent were she saw huge challenges. Being a girl and with a first hand understanding of some global challenges girls face, she with the help of volunteers and academics across 3 continents began to collate data and measures the impact first ladies and gender ministers on the African continent are making towards achieving universal primary education, which she sees as a prerequisite for gender equality. She then created the annual DUSUSU [Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up] Awards[48] in 2014 to encourage a healthy competition and reference point of progress among African first ladies and African gender ministers, to do more each year for girls education. So far, the first ladies of Tanzania in 2014, Kenya[49] in 2015, Namibia in 2016 Senegal in 2017,[50] Mozambique [51][52] in 2018 and Cape Verde in 2019 have received the award between 2014 and 2019, as well as gender ministers from Ghana,[53][54] Rwanda,[55] Jamaica [56][57][58] and Mauritius.

Brushing aside geopolitical challenges around the Middle East, and simply driven by the need to continue to dialog with world leaders on the issues of youth development and advocating for a stronger youth voice in finding solutions to the worlds social problems, she sat down in December 2018 with her first Arab leader - the President of Egypt - Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and shared her ideas on how leaders in the region and youths can communicate openly their ideas constructively, without animosity.[59][60][61] According to her, the youths of today, would become the leaders of tomorrow.

The US Embassy in Kingston - Jamaica in recognition of the impact she is making in the lives of children around the world, especially girls, invited her to visit the Mona school in Kingston in May 2019. She spoke to 200 girls about the power of dreams, a good education, showed herself as an example of what an educated girl can accomplish, and asked them never to give up in what they believe in.[62][8]

FIGHTING AGAINST GIRL AND CHILD MARRIAGE

A UNICEF report identified Mozambique as having one of the highest rates of girl marriage in the world, with 48% of the country's women married before the age of 18 [63][64][65] and the consequences are very damaging to the nations human capital development.[66] However, in recognition of her work in fighting the incidence of girl marriage in her country, Zuriel Oduwole presented her annual DUSUSU Award to Mozambique's First Lady H.E. Mrs. Isaura Nyusi in March 2018 in Maputo,[67] and later met personally with the country's leader H.E. President Filipe Nyusi a few hours later.[68] Zuriel presses for stronger measures that encourages girl education and tackles the girl marriage epidemic.[69] On July 15, 2019, seventeen months after Zuriel's meeting with President Filipe Nyusi, Mozambique's parliament passed a law against child marriage [70][71] by voting to criminalize child marriage,[72] a major victory in the quest for universal girls education in the SADC country, and a strong example for other countries in the region to follow.

One of the legacies of the eleven year Sierra Leone civil war from 1991 to 2002 was the systematic abuse of young and teenage girls by younger and older men, that quickly became a culture long after the war. Because girls were still seen as spoils of war, educating them was no longer a priority, until the new government of President Julius Maada Bio in 2018 introduced free education for all primary and secondary school students to gently reverse this trend. Accompanied by Sierra Leones First Lady Fatima Maada Bio, Zuriel addressed 20,000 girls at the Freetown Stadium and 250 paramount chiefs on December 13, 2019, showing herself to them as an example of what an educated girl can do if unhindered.[73][74][75] She hoped the chiefs would begin to discourage girl marriage on return to their various communities. She also shared her ideas on e-learning during her meeting with President Julius Bio and first lady Fatima Bio, at the second launch of a national 'Hands Off Our Girls' [76] campaign across the country, a social program aimed at discouraging the abuse of teenage girls.

RE-DEFINING PRIMARY EDUCATION METHODS

The UNICEF December 2018 report on education trends indicated that Africa's most populous country - Nigeria, with a population of over 200 million [77] had seen its number of out of school children rise from 10.5 million to 13.2 million.[78] This alarming statistics meant more traditional and non traditional methods of educating children were needed to stem the tide. In line with this goal, Zuriel met in February 2020 with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, the country's most populous state with more than 20 million inhabitants,[79] to share her story in using multimedia and digital creatives as an education platform and subject for older girls who had aged out of school, but were unemployed.[80][81] It was another way of effectively reducing the growing number of out of school children, including vulnerable teenage girls, by teaching them non traditional education skills such as film editing and creative programs.

Understanding the non traditional reasons why some girls across Africa are not educated, Zuriel visited schools in various townships in South Africa including Alexandria and Soweto, speaking to more than 2000 girls about the importance and value of staying in school. Creating a partnership with a femcare manufacturer from South Africa, she delivered products to dozens of girls across the Gauteng province, to ensure that female students really do stay, in school.[82][83]

In October 2013, Oduwole was bestowed with an honorary ambassador title in Tanzania by Salma Kikwete, and a computer lab in one of the country's schools was named after her.[84] Also that year she was listed in the New African Magazine's list of "100 Most Influential People in Africa".[10] On 21 April 2014, Oduwole was listed as the most Powerful 11 year old in the world by New York Business Insider's in their listing of "World's Most Powerful Person at Every Age".[14] In February 2015, Elle Magazine listed her in their annual feature of "33 Women Who Changed The World", alongside Fed Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and President of General Motors, Mary Barra.[15]

On 12 March 2016, Zuriel won the "Woman on The Rise" category at the 2016 edition of the "New African Women Awards".[85][86] In August 2016 at age 14, Forbes Afrique which is distributed across all 23 Francophone African countries as well as France, Belgium and Switzerland, featured her in their annual Africa's 100 Most Influential Women's list, alongside the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Ameenah Gurib, President of Mauritius.^[27]

The New York Times in September 2017, featured her growing work in the area of girls education advocacy and development programs to preventing early girl marriage on the African continent, in their segment - Women In The World.[87]

Following the release of her short documentary film in February 2019 on the centenary life of Madiba, she was honored for her humanitarian work by the Nelson Mandela Foundation in March 2019 in Johannesburg. It included a private tour of Mr Mandela's personal archives and a stop over in his last office.[88][89]

• The Ghana Revolution (2012)[12]
• The 1963 OAU Formation (2013)
• Technology in Educational Development (2014)
• A Promising Africa (2014)
• Follow The Ball For Education (2017)
• Goree Island - Senegal, A Solemn Story (2019)[90]
• Nelson Mandela - A Centenary Life of Giving (2019)[91]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zuriel Oduwole.

• Official website