Using Digital Painting to Amplify Women's Voices

This year will make it 5 years I joined World Pulse and I must say it has been a wonderful experience-from sharing my stories and projects to meeting some amazing and incredible women from all over the world who have not only become my friends but sisters that I can talk to anytime and share ideas with.

This year, I became a World Pulse Ambassador and I must confess, it has been an ‘eye opener’ on some things especially working with young people, mostly teenage boys. It has also made me appreciate (more) the importance of carrying boys and men along in the quest for creating equal opportunities for girls and women.

I am a STEM (science, technology, engineering and technology) advocate and I love mentoring young girls to pursue careers in STEM, however, I also love working with young boys. I love teaching them about technology and what they can do to make the society better such as respecting women, speaking out about injustice and avoiding drugs and crime.

I believe that as much as we advocate for equal opportunities for girls and women, we must also carry the boys and men along. Not just carry them along with words but also make them participate in certain activities that involve women so they can better understand why girls and women’s roles are very important in the society and the world at large.

I am currently organizing coding training sessions for young people and I have some teenage boys (12 to 16 years old) who are participating in the training. I introduced them to World Pulse and we carried out a project on amplifying women’s voices in the society using digital painting. The Project was focused on Aba women’s riot in 1929. A lot of people have heard about the riot but many still do not know how it started. So, I trained the boys on how to use Krita, a digital painting tool. The idea is to use digital painting tools to tell stories. After the training, we came up with a short comic story about Aba women’s riot in 1929. Aba women’s riot was sparked by a woman named Nwanyeruwa. The comic story we came up with will give you an idea of what Aba women’s riot was all about especially if you have never heard of it.

Whenever I have an opportunity to speak to young boys, I always make sure I try to encourage them to use technology to advocate for equal opportunities for girls and women. I believe it’s important to catch them young. While we were working on the project, I showed them World Pulse website and how women from all over the world are using it to speak up, connect and share their stories.

In this era of digital age, digital painting is a powerful way of telling a story; it helps us to interpret meaning, connect with people across generations, and express their thoughts clearly. I do hope that more people can tell their stories using digital painting and the voice of women have the potential to become louder.