Nigeria Is The 46th WAI Chapter Worldwide

By ANN Correspondent Aleta Vinas

Women in Aviation International lives up to its name. Over 11 countries were represented at the conference in Nashville, TN last week. The 46th chapter, WAI’s newest, was the Nigeria chapter.

Rejoice Ndudinachi is the chapter president; she and six other members attended the WAI conference.

"I’m happy to be here at this time." Ndudinachi said.

The chapter is 30 members strong. While 17 members applied to attend the conference, only seven were able to obtain their visas in time. Next year, Ndudinachi hopes for all the girls to attend.

Some of the women were individual members and represented varied aspects of the aviation career field. Ndudinachi is an aviation security expert, two are pilots, and there are also engineers, radar officials, and aero-medical personnel. Ndudinachi says “we noticed we need to come together in Nigeria, so we started a chapter.”

Many of the women knew each other from working at the same airport, Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Ikeja in Lagos, Nigeria. Ndudinachi went further; she requested the Nigeria member names from WAI and began calling the women to attend the monthly meeting held at the airport. Most of the women attended; there were some who lived too far away. The group plans to publish their meeting times in some aviation magazines to reach those that may be near enough to join the group but may be unaware of their existence.

The goals of the Nigeria chapter echo those of all the chapters. "We need to encourage women in aviation. We also need to encourage the youths to go into aviation fields," said Ndudinachi.

The women also want to support those that have been in aviation and may want to return to it, or just still have an interest in it. Ndudinachi already has the Explore Aviation Kit from WAI, and the group will be helping the Girl Guides work on their aviation badge.

Plans are being made to speak with principals at local schools to allow the women to give talks to the students about aviation. From this, interested students can talk to the members individually.

Already on the calendar are plans to attend next year's Women in Aviation International Conference being held in Orlando, FL on February 15 – 17, 2007. Some of the women have already pre-registered.

There was a seminar this year about aviation in Europe; next year, the Nigeria chapter may be presenting a seminar about Aviation in Africa.

"The seminars here are very beneficial,” notes Ndudinachi. "We need to learn from other women. We need to encourage women around our environment so that we can have a better field in aviation."

Amen, sister!

FMI: www.wai.org