Why I Started GIDOWAC(2)

 I didn't start GIDOWAC in order to rule the world, although I'm tempted to. No? Haven't you thought of having so much influence you could tell world leaders how to behave? Well, in a million years I didn't think that that was remotely possible for me to wield great influence through a non governmental organization. Oh! I would rather be the Secretary General of the United Nations to achieve such a feat! Woohoo! Anyway, GIDOWAC isn't a porn club for women. No, thank you. It isn't a place for wayward girls and women to hide away from discipline from the society. I hope that when WIELD Housing becomes a reality, troubled girls and women will find a safe place to call home until they are able to find their footing again.

I know that with a global perspective I bit more than I could possibly chew when choosing the focus of the non governmental organization that I started. But women all over the world suffer similar fates. Those of not being allowed to achieve their natural potentials and being allowed to fail come readily to mind. When it comes to achievements and failures, the world doesn't judge boys and girls the same way, nor are women given as many opportunities to fail as are men. So, it's been one hell of a dive into an inlet I had no idea how to navigate. But I had the will; and yes, the guts too? Also, it's probably because I didn't know the terrain I was operating in the kind of vileness in human being around me. I'm still here and I hope that in the nearly nine years that this NGO has been registered but moribund, it's been nothing but a very long winter. Surely, it's going to be spring someday soon. Starting a non profit has never been easy. Yet, I'm compromised. I was trained in Dispute Resolution and not Human Services at UMass Boston, which the latter would have equipped me with the needed skills to run and head a non profit successfully. But the Program in Women in Politics & Public Policy of the same institution got me thinking along this line since 2007. God bless America. But I had no idea that the 'Nigerian' people, a network of idlers, could hijack my life so effectively and have no iota of shame or regret. I'm recovering from the shock of the realization of the evil in the African mind and its willingness to conspire to commit and be complicit in crimes. I'm still learning about mankind. 

 

GIDOWAC is no different from many safe places offered by religious organizations notably the Catholic Church to help young women to grow up into full womanhood. You probably heard about the YWCA growing up like I did. It wasn't until Boston, Massachusetts that I went up to the YMCA at Back Bay to attend an event that such an organization could make any sense to me. I'm a believer in the inherent goodness of mankind. I'm also a victim of the evil in religion. I went on an LDS Church mission to the United States of America. But I'm afraid of dogma. Man remains what he is - a sometimes silly entity that finds amusement in destroying women and the whole world in that process. Imagine that a woman among my lot had a last name that translated as God in Igbo. Would that make her God or give her authority to shame or ridicule other women who participated in the same programme if not with better religious results.Women mustn't let power hungry men shame our womanhood. I'm not impressed with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You don't celebrate recalcitrance. You don't celebrate sycophancy. You don't celebrate vanity or a tendency to lie behind other people's back. You don't celebrate theft. You don't celebrate promiscuity. Those aren't the fine qualities of God nor are they to be found among women who wield positive power and influence in the society. No church should celebrate such arrant nonsense from God or Satan. 

 

 GIDOWAC is a non religious but moral organization that will give aid to women and give them opportunities in non-conventional ways. I didn't think it's possible for anybody to walk on their head so it's still an organization for human beings. We will first need and later provide aid to people. I hadn't done any fundraising drive yet. Even though I picked up a grantmaking skill from the Cambridge Continuous Education Center in Massachusetts, I haven't been able to harness this very useful skill...yet. I hate to beg strangers for aid but you know when it's absolutely necessary you just might adorn a mask and do get the job done. Yes ooo. I know there are wonderful organizations in Nigeria that provide housing to women in trouble. Since most of them are religious in nature, and being a tentatively agnostic woman I'd feel inadequate to lodge at such a place, hence I think that GIDOWAC will fill the void that is already created by our teeming population. Unwed mothers, school or college drop outs, girls afraid of incest at home, or being raped by relatives or being forced into prostitution are such women who are welcome at WIELD Housing. We do not have a corporate bank account. I don't know that any exists and please do tell if you ever donated to this organization any day, anywhere and at any time. Thank you. You know nah, you just register NGO to create a job for the yahoo men and women of Africa. Not here, please. No thank you.

If you need to get more information on some of the things talked about please contact gidowac@gmail.com. A website is necessary and it's in the works. I may have to build it myself. Uh! Except that a volunteer website developer helps me here, I'm going to first learn how to build one and it's going to take a while in coming out. I'll be very grateful for that sort of help. Thanks!