Source: Daily Trust
A group of rural women in Adamawa State recently vowed to end poverty in their respective communities by engaging in skill acquisition training in domestic trades. The women made the resolution during a five-day skills training workshop, organised by the Women Education and Empowerment Initiative (WEEIN) in Yola, Adamawa State capital. Correspondent Ibrahim Abdul'Aziz was at the venue of the event and filed in this report.

Zuwaira A. Aboki and Mrs Esther Silas look unperturbed as they defy the scorching sun and hot weather being experienced in Yola, the Adamawa State capital to be part of the epoch training event organized by a nongovernmental organization Women Education and Empowerment Initiative (WEEIN).

Indeed, for women who are marginalized by society, the WEEIN Resources centre is a place they can call home, while earning a living to provide for their families. Most of the women enrolled in this centre have experienced a moving incident that has given them a social stigma, making it hard to find decent employment. Some of the women, according to sources are either divorced or unlettered, that cannot read and write, while others are married wives that could not get any job to earn a living.

At Motif the women find a safe place where they can earn a living, as well as share with the other women in a family-type atmosphere. Motif prides itself on making unique lifestyle fabrics and accessories, and considers the quality and production of their designs, their good prices, timely deliveries, and strong relationships with customers are stronger selling points than the fact that all their goods are fair trade - something they think should be the norm rather than an exception.

Women Education and Empowerment Initiative - is a self-sustaining effort in Adamawa State which aims at bringing about rapid development and sustainable empowerment of some of the most vulnerable groups in the society through provision of functional education, economic empowerment, political enlightenment and social mobilization.

So, for the 120 participants drawn for the training the level of women's awareness of their rights, has greatly improved in the recent times.

"We are set to end hunger, diseases, lack of clean drinking water, illiteracy and women's health issues in our communities," Zuwaira A.Aboki has said.

Interestingly, like Zuwaira, other pastoral Fulani women who were part of the training programme, said that they had greatly benefited from the WEEIN programme, and already many have started learning many trades that they can rely upon.

For Shattu Mallum, with the expected loan which the organization promised to facilitate, she hopes to start a more reassuring business. "These days, milking is very difficult, as there is not enough food and water for our cattle," said Shattu.

Shattu further explained that all she has ever known before she began to attend the WEEIN programme, was how to make ground millet cake, sour milk and instant butter,but there seems to be a new dawn now.

According to many participants of the training scheme, the programme did not only train them in skills acquisition, but has taught them a lot in food processing and personal hygiene.

"Such a programme that is meant to expose nomads to a diverse world of economic opportunities is welcome, and must be supported by both the Federal Government and the international community," she said.

Also corroborating, Christiana James and Shamsiyya Musa Garba, noted with emphasis that "Women are doing well after pushing aside all traditional social stereotypes and prejudices against them. We shall therefore wake up from this slumber and fight the ravaging poverty that causes broken-homes in the recent time," they said.

"With the little that I could get in the business, my beloved husband will definitely get relief in many aspects," Amina Ya'uba, another participant, volunteered.

The 120 vulnerable women groups were taught how to make liquid soap, air fresher, Izal, Dettol and tile washer among others.

The knitting class trains women in knitting different items with wonderful designs, while in bead making, students are not just trained in making necklaces, earrings and bracelets, but also beads bags, beads cushion covers among others. The skills demonstrated at the occasion thrilled many husbands who were in attendance to procure the application forms for their spouses.

In her remarks, Hajiya Zainab Nyako, founder and initiator of the pet project, was emphatic that empowering women has helped communities increase and sustain economic development.

She recalls that the programme had empowered over 3,000 women in the three senatorial zones, with participants drawn from 21 local government areas of the state. Only recently about 200 women participated. Of this number 72 are trained on bead arrangement, 50 engaged in tailoring, 20 in knitting, while 22 are trained in basic computer literacy, and 10 are enrolled in adult literacy classes. They were also taught on the new method of modern milking and diary.

The governor's wife observed that granting women more rights and opportunities, enables them to receive more education, thus increasing the overall human capital of the country.

"We have commenced the training of women on many domestic skills, to gain skills in soap-making, pomade-making, groundnut oil extraction, yoghurt processing and bead arrangement. The number of the beneficiaries of my programme are over 3,000 so far," she said, adding that she intends to hit many digits by the end of her husband's second term in office.

She equally assured that she would do her best to pave way for the beneficiaries to obtain soft loans from financial institutions like the Bank of Industry, the Standard Micro-finance Bank, and Union Bank, so as to enable them to start up their own businesses, and never to be caught in the kind of hunger and deprivation being experienced by many families.

One of the facilitators, and permanent secretary state ministry of women affairs ,Hajiya Maisaratu Bello, commended the initiative, as it could help in making them self-reliant, "it's now clear that the downtrodden, particularly ,the unemployed married women, and widows, are benefitting from government policies," she said.

"This project, I strongly believe, will in no small measure help towards empowering girls and women for a brighter future," said one of the invited guests, Dr Salihu Bakari Girei, state chairman of the Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Board (ADSUBEB).

Bakari Girei noted that through such initiatives there is light at the end of the tunnel, and assured that ADSUBEB will continue to partner with them towards achieving desired results.

The special guest of honour and permanent secretary Ministry of local government affairs,Alh.Abdurrahman Tugga, said that the fact that women have contextualised the importance of learning domestic trades, signals that they will help the nation to develop.

However, while celebrating success and products of this initiative, pundits have argued that the effort requires resources and expertise to be harnessed from government and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for the needed impact, as its main thrust is in line with government's societal development plans and goals such as the MDGs.

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