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!