The Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development, has trained 50 women and youths from Dukku and Nafada Local Government Areas of Gombe State on various skills.
Mrs Ebi Emezue, the centre’s Director on Training, in an interview with journalists in Gombe on Thursday on the sideline of the closing ceremony of the three-day training, expressed satisfaction with the success of the training.
Emezue said the training was conducted in collaboration with Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Hajiya Aisha Dukku, a former lawmaker, representing Dukku and Nafada Federal Constituency to empower women and youths from the constituents.
She said the training was to empower women and youths to make their own incomes and be self-sufficient towards improving their livelihoods in view of the harsh economic reality.
“The training was to essentially empower and skill up youths and women in the constituency to give them quick win skills that they can use at this point in time when things are so difficult to improve their livelihood.
“It is also for them to make small income and improve hygiene in their environment too.
“They were trained on life skills, how to make footwear, hygiene products and so on. We trained altogether 50 men and women from both local governments.
The director while emphasising on the need for Nigerians to get skills, said life skills such as the kind of training given to the women and youths from the constituents remained a major tool to addressing poverty and improving the welfare and wellbeing of citizens.
“These (life skills) are skills that do not take long to learn and can be immediately be applied to their living.
“It does not take much to set up. With N5,000 to N10,000, you can startup any of these skills.
“You can produce sanitisers, vaseline, dettol and so on. You can also do few pairs of shoes with this amount,” she said.
Emezue while justifying why 60 per cent of the participants were women said “poverty has the face of a woman and they are the ones who take care of the home front.
“And mainly in our constituency, we want to see every woman making good use of herself, improving her situation, helping out in the family.
“If a woman is empowered, she would definitely want to help her children to be empowered, send her children to school as well as contribute to the family’s welfare,” she said.
According to her, the participants were given starter packs and a token to start up.
She encouraged the beneficiaries to justify what the federal government was investing towards empowerment of women and youths in Nigeria by making judicious use of the skills acquired to improve their wellbeing.
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke to our Correspondent expressed their appreciation to the Federal Government and the partners for the intervention which they described as “instant life-changing”.
Ummukursun Umar, from Dukku said the training had enhanced her knowledge on how to make dettol and vaseline which she said would help her improve her income in her community.
Umar said she would also spend less as she would now make for herself and her household sanitisers, dettols and vaseline which would reduce her expenses in that regard.
“I will also empower others on how to make especially sanitisers and dettols which are good for home hygiene and will in turn reduce sicknesses caused by diseases and poor hygiene,” she said.
For Adamu Shehu, another beneficiaries from Dukku, it is a story of answered prayer as he had been longing for some sort of skills to help him make money and fend for his household.
Shehu said he had been idle until his selection to participate in the training and “now I can mend shoes and make them.
“So I will not be idle again as I hope to nurture this skills by practicing what I have acquired and use the knowledge to better my life,” he said.
