10,000 Girls Tour: Empowering girls across the Eastern Caribbean

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States’ (OECS) Commission has partnered with Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne, NASA space scientist and Founder of the Brightest Stars Foundation, to inspire girls in the OECS region to achieve against all odds.

Trinidad-born NASA aerospace engineer and role model, Dr. Alleyne will use her own journey and Caribbean success story, paired with the positive message of the film “Hidden Figures,” to motivate, inspire and empower 10,000 girls throughout the region to reach their full potential. Her message to them is to dream big dreams and to know that there is no limit to what they can achieve with hard work, determination, focus and a belief in themselves.

“When you empower and inspire youth to believe in themselves and their capacity for greatness, they embrace their power to be the leaders of tomorrow – leaders who will create positive and lasting change in their communities and our world,” Dr. Alleyne said.

“Hidden Figures” is the untold true story of the brilliant African-American women mathematicians who NASA hired in the late 1950’s. These women were instrumental in calculating the flight trajectories that made the mission of the first American to orbit the Earth – John Glenn – successful. Dr Alleyne hopes to use the narrative of “Hidden Figures” to inspire and motivate young Caribbean women to see their potential for greatness.

The Eastern Caribbean leg of the 10,000 Girls Tour aims to host 1,500 girls in each island, with a particular focus on underserved rural and urban communities. Dr Alleyne and her team plan to visit at least ten Caribbean islands by the end of the year.

The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion led by Dr. Alleyne and that includes a highly accomplished local female STEM model and a female university scholar.

Director General of the OECS, Dr. Didacus Jules commended the initiative saying that “the OECS Education Strategy is committed to gender equality and that the promotion of science, technology, engineering and maths was an important element in the educational formation of young Caribbean women.

“We commend and support this initiative by Dr. Alleyne who is a leading Caribbean Scientist employed in NASA’s Space Program and we are hopeful that this will ignite a passion for the sciences among our girls”.

The 10,000 Girls tour was launched in Trinidad on March 15th 2017, under RBC Caribbean Limited’s Young Leaders Programme and boasted over 340 girls from all across the country.

About The Brightest Stars Foundation: The Brightest Stars Foundation is a non-governmental organisation that is dedicated to educating, empowering and inspiring young women to be future leaders in the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Founded in 2007 by Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne, the Brightest Stars Foundation has inspired and empowered over 3000 young people, globally, to see their potential and to strive for excellence in their academic pursuits.

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9 Comments

  1. Bernice
    May 18, 2017

    Would like to get a number for the organizers.

  2. LifeandDeath
    May 18, 2017

    Great idea, but young women need empowering just as much as our young men also do, some of our young men are lost.
    I know the odds have been stacked against women for a long time and although universal suffrage for women around the world came late, it came anyway and we have to celebrate small victories in the progression of human justice, equity and equality between the genders.
    However, if we continue to “empower” only women, there tends to be a subtle separation and rift that can severely damage a compatible spirit of coexistence between males and females..as a result Men continue to lag and be disoriented in their roles, and scores of “independent” women end up without offspring because they can’t find a balanced/good man..
    For the record I have no objection to this program, it is positive and wonderful for young women but the general trend of “empowering” women can have an inverse negative effect on society in the long run..BALANCE!!

  3. Sci-Fi
    May 18, 2017

    It is all well and good to ignite the passion for science but we need to recruit more capable science teachers who can break down difficult threshold scientific concepts to our young people. Some of the secondary school science teachers are brilliant science students or former brilliant science students but cannot communicate the concepts sufficiently to the students and basically just regurgitate the textbooks. In the end, many students are frustrated and just tell themselves “I cant do this” or “this is too hard”.

  4. Inspired
    May 18, 2017

    This is really inspiring. I would love to meet with the crew. May God guide them to touch many lives and do great work.

  5. Plato
    May 18, 2017

    This is an absolutely fantastic and, I must add, very much required step. The fear of mathematics and science needs to be removed from our children. Instead they need to be taught that this is they way to go to developing their individual countries and the region as a whole, and ofcourse to place themselves on course to certain, rewarding and high paying employment. All the best with that.

  6. Heartfelt
    May 18, 2017

    This is a very good initiative. I hope the participants will take it seriously. Too many of our young women seem not to know their worth or potential.

  7. Lyon
    May 17, 2017

    Fantastic initiative in making our girls believe in themselves – congrats to Dr. Alleyene and the OECS Commission we need more of this! :) we can do anything!

  8. wehboy
    May 17, 2017

    awesome

  9. Channel 1
    May 17, 2017

    Can somebody please tell me when will the 10,000 BOYS tour to inspire boys in the OECS be starting?

    Or is it that the boys and dem in the OECS are already inspired?

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