Crowns are lovely, but what good is a crown if you wear it alone?

The biggest crown we can wear is the one we give to others.

Three years ago that question changed my life. This year, 150 girls answered it for me.

We invited 50 girls to our outreach in Bayelsa State, and 150 amazing girls walked in, anxious, ready, and hungry to learn. The word had spread, but it wasn't of our making.

The girls found their way to us, three times the number we had hoped for, this was a beautiful problem for us!

"We planned for 50 girls, but 50 girls X 3 walked in. This magical hat trick of an equation began something deeper for us at Promoting Queens. It reinforced our commitment to every girl, it silenced our fear of success, and encouraged us to never stop. — WFM Perpetual Ogbiyoyo

We are three years old now, but we only see it as the beginning.

There's something about the number three that hits differently. At one, you're still figuring out if this thing is real. At two, you're testing whether it lasts. At three, you know. You know it's not a phase, you know it's not an experiment, and definitely not something you can walk away from. At three, It has you, and you are too sunken to bow out, it is you, and you are it.

Promoting Queens has me.

Narrow paths, wide dreams

One question has followed us since the beginning: what happens after chess? A girl learns the game, finds herself in it, starts to believe in her competency, and then what? Where does that momentum go?

This was a bottleneck for us, but as the path got narrower, wider did our dreams become!

FM Abimbola Osunfuyi, who has been with Promoting Queens from day one, refused to let that question go unanswered. He built ChessNCode, and this initiative broadens our horizon and widens our reach for unveiling the royalty in women and girls.

The ChessNCode program takes girls from the chessboard directly into the world of tech, through an income-share scholarship model that means no girl has to choose between opportunity and affordability. We are currently in the beta phase, and our first two scholars, Elora and Praise, are already testing and shaping what this program becomes. You can follow their journey as it unfolds.

Right now, we are looking for the first sponsor to fund the first Promoting Queens girl through the ChessNCode pipeline. And no, you won't just write a cheque and walk away, you'll follow her journey live and watch the scholar become an employable techie. From her first day in the program to employability.

This is the ground floor of something that will matter for a long time. Kindly reach out to support a scholar.

1, 2, 3……Now 1,500 girls

We have now reached over 1,500 girls, and we did this with zero funding or grants.

We have carried and promoted every one of our 1500 girls with the sheer will of our founder and her super passionate team. What we are doing matters, and we have caught the eyes of partners like ChessKid who have shown their support by providing our girls with free accounts and opening up a whole new way to learn and play chess.

I don't say that to be impressive, but it is proof that when you decide something must exist, it does. The next chapter is in motion — more countries, more girls, more rooms where someone walks in not believing in herself and walks out beaming with confidence and competence. That we can truly empower women makes us sleep well at night, as it also makes us restless when we think of the many other places we should be organizing our outreaches.

From small zones to Mapping the World

Promoting Queens is now a global organization! This means we are not restricted to borders, (we never were, at least, in our minds). Girls are in different parts of the world, and that's where we should be, our vision doesn't end at the African shores.

There are girls everywhere whose talents are burning quietly, waiting for someone to show up and say: this seat is yours. We are not stopping until we reach them. All of them.

If you're reading this, wherever you are in the world, and something in you stirs, that's not an accident. We would love to have you, as a partner, a donor, a volunteer, a coach, a sponsor, or simply someone who shares the belief that girls deserve every chance to dare, to dream, and to bet on themselves.

Don't be a stranger, reach out to us at contact@promotingqueens.org.

Let's build something beautiful together.

Three years ago, a question became a conviction. A conviction became a commitment. A commitment became Promoting Queens.

I am so proud of what we've built, and I'm more determined than ever about what comes next.

None of what we have achieved happened in a single moment or happened alone. To every volunteer who gave their time, their energy, their presence, and their skill when we needed hands on the ground: you are woven into this story whether your name appears here or not. I carry every one of you.

To every donor, supporter, cheerleader, and believer who showed up in whatever way they could , Thank you.

Truly, you made this real.

To every girl who sat across a chessboard with us — you are seen.

Let's keep going.

♟ Every girl is a Queen.

— Perpetual Founder, Promoting Queens