Next: Zuriel Oduwole

08 May Next: Zuriel Oduwole

Forging Equity for Women Through Education

On a trip to Ghana from her hometown of Los Angeles when she was nine years old, Zuriel Oduwole noticed many young girls selling wares on the street. As they weaved in between cars to make sales and collect money, Oduwole had a realization about life for many girls in parts of Africa. “That was when I learned there was a serious issue about girl’s education,” she says. She discovered that it was customary for boys to go to school and for girls to stay home doing jobs like looking after farm animals or selling crafts to bring in money for the family. “Because I had school every day at home in California, I did not understand why any girl would not be at school, so my advocacy journey began after that trip,” she says.

Now, 12 years later, 21-year-old Oduwole is still advocating for the education of girls in Africa as a cofounder of the DUSUSU Foundation, which stands for Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up. “Essentially, we encourage young girls to dream big, because dreams are free, and to use their voices to speak about issues that are important to them and, more importantly, to stand up for anyone they see who can’t stand up for themselves,” she explains. The foundation partners with other groups to organize initiatives that facilitate learning, such as book drives and classroom renovations.

In her quest to make education customary in parts of the world where a 16-year-old girl might be more likely to get married than to finish high school, she has met with more than 30 world leaders from Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East to discuss children’s education challenges. She has also spoken to more than 50,000 young people in 19 countries about how transformative education can be.

For several years, Oduwole has taught filmmaking to unemployed girls and young women in such countries as Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. In addition to helping girls learn a marketable skill, she uses filmmaking to highlight her advocacy work.

After a meeting to discuss girl marriage with President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique in 2018, the two continued to have a dialogue. A year later, in 2019, Mozambique outlawed girl marriage. “The lives of more than 1.1 million girls had changed forever,” she says. “That was an incredible moment.”

Moving forward, she continues to exemplify all that an educated woman can do. “It is very easy to complain about something that is not working,” she says. “I would like for people across the world to find what they believe they can change and start that journey today.” DW