The Rivers State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Ukel Oyagiri has Charged members of the Tertiary Institution Women Association (TIWA), in the state to positively affect the lives of women in the society so as to contribute their quota to the development of the state through their various professions.
The commissioner also urged them to see themselves as catalysts for societal change as educated professionals by educating and sensitising their fellow women who are not educated and privileged in the society.
Mrs Oyagiri made the call while receiving in audience, members of TIWA who paid her a courtesy visit in her office in Port Harcourt, last Thursday.
She urged them to use their positions to reawaken the consciousness of other women in order to become a strong voice in the society so as to leave a lasting legacy in the society that would be passed on to the next generation.
“You have a great role to play in the society especially at the grass roots. “You must work together as women, you must play down on issues that divide women and work on things that unite women. When women come together and work as a force, great impact is always achieved”, she stated.
She assured the group that the state ministry of women affairs would work in synergy with the association to achieve the objectives and goals for which it was established.
Earlier in her speech, the state chairperson of TIWA, Mrs Joy Mekuri-Ndimele, who is the wife of the Vice Chancellor, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, said they were in the commissioner’s office to acquaint her with the objectives of the association, adding that the group was inaugurated in 2006.
She said that membership of the association was drawn from the wives of heads of higher institutions in the state and added that the association was borne to cue into programmes that would help to uplift the plights of women in the state owned higher institutions and the society at large.
“As wives of heads of higher institutions in the state, we have agreed to come together to join forces with the state ministry of women affairs to contribute their quota towards the development of the women folk in the state”, she stated.