Source: Daily Trust
Proactive Gender Initiatives (PGI) Friday appealed to the Federal Government to set up programmes to empower women so that they can help solve problems in their homes.

Members of the group, who spoke individually on the benefits of such programmes, said in cases where husbands can no longer take care of homes either due to loss of jobs or death, women who are empowered can pay their children's school fees as well as provide food in their homes.

The group members voiced out their feelings at an event they organized to mark the International Day of Youths.

Bridget Gwagime, a member, cited an instance when a teenage girl was put in the family way by a miscreant due to poverty in her home.

Theresa Zakaria, another member, said if a mother is empowered it saves a whole family.

She commended the Lagos State government for increasing the jail term associated to rape case to life imprisonment.

Also commenting, coordinator of the group, Barrister Esther Uzoma, advised women to ensure that they sent their children to schools in order to eradicate poverty in homes.

"My mother sold her wrappers to train me in school and any woman who denies her child education should be prepared to embrace poverty," the coordinator added.

She advised mothers to focus more on their children, who are willing to go to school and enroll others in trades.

The coordinator also instructed members of the group to submit the names of their children for a proposed workshop being planned to enable successful youths lecture them on career choices and steps to a successful life. 

• Nigeria