OUR FOUNDER
Chi. E. Okafor (CEO) is the Founder - President of The walk with Women & Children Foundation. She is a skilled public speaker, leader and advocate. She is a strong business development professional and MBA graduate of the University of Oxford and member of New College. She served as the co-chair of the Oxford Women’s Leadership Alliance, chair of the Oxford Africa Conference and on the secretary’s committee of the Oxford Union. As one of the 25 young Nigerian women champions for UN Women Beijing +25, she has over 7 years professional experience working on gender-focused projects across communities, governmental and non-governmental organisations.
HER STORY
While studying her undergraduate at King's College London, Miss Okafor was eager to join a women's society but was disappointed to find that the only all women's club was one for knitting, sewing and baking. Appauled at this, she set out to start her own society - the King’s College London Women’s Network (KCLWN) where ambitious young women could learn, share ideas and network - an organisation that is still running till date. Miss Okafor states that in hindsight she now recognises that this was the start of her journey of empowering young girls and women.
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in 2017, she visited Nigeria for a 6-weeks internship where she would go on to work with an NGO focused on maternal and child healthcare. Whilst working in the field, she realised that the issues and barriers pertaining to the rights of women in Nigeria were far worse than she had imagined.
She describes them as "..too glaring for me to ignore and I just felt this unwavering need to do something about it".
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Thus, The walk with Women & Children Foundation was birthed with the aim of collaborating with visionary community-embedded organizations that empower women and girls to advance their personal, social, health, education and economic rights.