EMEM UMOH

'As  founder and Chief Executive Officer of Women in Nature Conservation  Organization (WINCO) , my core career goal is to raise future passionate  and resilient female conservationists in a career line fondly referred  to 'the men's world'. Personally, I have scaled through tough career  hurdles in my twenty-two years of impactful conservation work in  Nigeria. Our story as n NGO began in 2015. Back then the founder and CEO  was teaching part time in the Department of Zoology, now Animal and  Environmental Biology, University of Uyo, Nigeria when she discovered  that a greater number of students especially the female, in  conservation-related courses were either forced to study the course or  accidentally found themselves there. This way they were ignorant of the  potentials but rather displayed low self-esteem, dislike for the course  and uncertainties about their future underscoring the low manpower for  conservation work in a region where conservation is rarely practiced.  These inspired commencement of routine general advocacy, awareness,  sensitization and conservation education in collaboration with  institutions, organizations and communities. There was a maiden event on  30th June 2015 in the University of Uyo to commemorate World  Environment Day. On 23rd October 2019, Women in Nature Conservation  Organization WINCO was legally registered in Nigeria and officially  inaugurated on 29th January 2021 at WINCO permanent ground, a 2,000  square-meter land acquired for the WINCO Global Secretariat.  WINCO has a  vision of raising a crop of passionate, focused, diligent and resilient  women conservation leaders sustainably managing the earth’s natural  resources. Its mission is to promote sustainable conservation and  management of natural resources by initiating, engaging and empowering  more women conservation leaders.'

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For more on WINCO:  read here.