The General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, William Kumuyi, has admonished mothers and girls to be virtuous, value-driven and purposeful in life.

Mr Kumuyi gave the advice on Friday during a Global Women’s Conference organised in Port Harcourt by the Change Makers International.

The theme of the six-day conference is, “Driving positive change and social impact.”

Mr Kumuyi, who is the Convener of CMI, spoke on the importance of recreating purposeful-driven change-makers.

He said that society needs God-fearing people to be agents of change.

According to him, if everyone in society can change, the country will be a better place.

He asked, “Who can find a virtuous woman, who can free a victimised woman, who can form a value driven woman?”

The clergyman further said that virtuous women are found in every community as long as they make themselves available, as seen in Proverbs 31:16.

He also said that God can form a value-driven woman and free a victimised woman.

“Many people have victimisation syndrome, they are tied down and conditioned like that. Anybody can tell stories of their accusers and people that conditioned them a certain way through their words and pointing fingers of accusation.

“Accusation is not condemnation, conditioning your mind as a victim keeps you stagnant; changing that mindset will set you thousands of miles from where you are. Walk away from accusation and abuse from those who condemn you, John 8:10 and 11,” Mr Kumuyi said.

He advised young girls to make themselves different in their ways, and sacrifice their time to study and develop themselves.

Earlier, the President, Rivers Women University Association and Guest Speaker at the event, Uchenda Okogbule, spoke on “Breaking barriers, turning adversity into opportunity.”

Ms Okogbule said that “break” could mean separation from barriers, while barriers are materials that want to block one’s way.

She also said that “turning” could mean changing a direction, while opportunity also means a chance to advancement or progress or success.

She listed some of the barriers to include cultural, religious, political and social-economic.

Ms Okogbule gave instances of barriers as gender-based violence, female genital mutilation, widowhood practices, segregation in worship places and child marriage, amongst others.

She also talked about political barriers, saying that women were not allowed to participate deeply in politics.

“These are dehumanising practices in our society,” she further said.

She advised women not to consider themselves helpless and hopeless, rather should pursue education, knowledge and be a support system to one another.

“Women should refuse to be used for harmful practices against one another. Women should go on advocacy in their various communities and speak against these barriers to build better families and nation at large,” Ms Okogbule said. (NAN)