Following the announcement earlier this week in Los Angeles of the 2017 recipient for the DUSUSU Award in the First Lady category, 14 year old Film Maker & Girl Education Advocate Zuriel Oduwole has traveled to Dakar - Senegal to present the Award to Her Excellency Mrs. Marieme Faye Sall. The Award recognizes the work and documented successes of African First ladies in their overall gender development initiatives, with an emphasis on Girls Education. According to the UN, Africa has one of the highest rates of out-of-school children in the word, with most of them being Girls.
These young Girls end up in early forced marriages, as young as 13 or 12 years old, because of the acceptance practices in their cultures. It is against this backdrop that the UN Secretary General established the International Day of the Girl in 2011, when Zuriel was just 9 years old. She started her Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up project in early 2013 at age 10 to encourage out of school Girls to Dream, and launched the DUSUSU Awards in 2014 to honor First Ladies making a difference..
So far, the First Ladies of Tanzania [2014], Kenya [2015], Namibia [2016] and now Senegal [2017] have proudly received these Awards. The Award is highly regarded and anticipated by the First Ladies, because it had no political affiliation, no multilateral agency affiliation, no government backing, but rather, the simple initiative by a Girl who recognizes the importance and influences First Ladies have, in tackling this 'stubborn' and 'burgeoning' global malady.
Because of this and many other initiatives she leads across the globe including meeting one-on-one with 24 world leaders, the US Secretary of State on January 6th 2017 - The Rt Hon John Kerry, honored Zuriel in Washington DC, calling her the Worlds Most Powerful Girl. She became the youngest person since the State Department was formed in 1789, to meet with a US Secretary of State in his office.
The search for the 2018 recipient has now begun.
 Film Maker & Girl Education Advocate Zuriel Oduwole has traveled to Dakar, Senegal,  to present the Award to Her Excellency Mrs. Marieme Faye Sall.
Film Maker & Girl Education Advocate Zuriel Oduwole presents the Award to Her Excellency Mrs. Marieme Faye Sall.
Her Excellency Mrs. Marieme Faye Sall with the DUSUSU Award in the First Lady category

Michuzi Blog

Tanzanian blog operating since 2005, covering International news and Local News, including Politics, Fashion, Social Scenes, Interviews, Movies, Events, personalities and anything positive happening worldwide. Written in Swahili and English targeting both Swahili and English readers.

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