The Group

Organising a Science Festival in order to build a Science Centre in Owerri.

Science and technology are indispensable for sustainable development on the African continent. In Africa, science, education and training are still far from acceptable standards, and far from satisfying scientific curiosity and the involvement of the population.

Science and technology are essential so as to allow a population to take their destiny into their own hands, empowering them. People are encouraged by action which promotes curiosity towards science and the intelligent use of technology. With the right impetus - cultural stimulus and values - young Africans have the potential to make headway in this field.

Such an opportunity propels African youth towards scientific studies, providing an instrument with which to bridge the gap between less developed countries and the rest of the world. It is therefore necessary to start now, beginning locally, by encouraging and supporting local scientific initiatives.

Against this background, the ASSUMPTA SCIENCE CENTRE ASSOCIATION has put forward a proposal, supported by the Pontifical Cultural Council, to the IDIS-CITY OF SCIENCE FOUNDATION, to take part in setting up the Owerri Science Centre and to promote a SCIENCE FESTIVAL in Owerri.

The main aim of the ASSUMPTA SCIENCE CENTRE is to assist Nigeria in creating an ever more culturally tolerant, moderate, comprehensive and mutually respective society, based on knowledge and skills.

The project will focus on the following goals:

• provide all citizens with scientific education based on practical experience, an understanding and preservation of the   importance of enhancing the local environment
• attract the younger generation towards a scientific career by stimulating their curiosity and increasing their abilities
• bettering the quality of their scientific education, promoting informal apprenticeships and laboratory experience through their education system
• increasing the abilities of those working in diverse phases of the project (students involved in educational and training activities, scientists and experts working in the planning and implementation of experiments, personnel involved in running the displays), and by doing so, increasing the interest of the people who visit the many exhibitions and displays at the festival and centre (children and students, educational institutions, and families).

The project ASSUMPTA SCIENCE CENTRE is being promoted at a local level by the ASSUMPTA SCIENCE CENTRE ASSOCIATION and by the OWERRI ARCHDIOCESE (via its communication office the Assumpta Press) and with the involvement of the following universities: the Federal University of Science & Technology, the Imo State University, the Federal Polytechnic Nekede Owerri, the College of Agriculture and the College of Education, as well as various Catholic university-student associations, youth associations and associations of young Catholics in paramilitary service. At an Italian level, the project is supported by the ASSUMPTA SCIENCE ASSOCIATION.