|
|
March 2004
With your financial support, more than 6,000 women in 16 communities in Enugu and Plateau States have been sponsored, indirectly benefiting more than 36,000 family members. During this last three months alone, 1,576 program participants graduated from the Sponsorship and Renewing Women’s Life Skills (ReneWLS) training program, that includes classes on rights awareness, business skills, health, politics, family, law, etc. The women usually wear their best clothes on Graduation Day and are proud to have benefited from such a life-enriching program. During the graduation, they sing songs, act out plays, and give speeches depicting what they have learned from the program. The graduates usually insist they take pictures with the field officers, who facilitated the trainings during the women’s participation, and pose with their certificates. During the women’s graduation ceremonies, they sing songs thanking the organization for coming to their aid; their sponsors for supporting them financially and emotionally; and pray that their sponsors live long and prosper.
Women for Women International -- Nigeria is a force to be reckoned with in the areas of poverty alleviation and skills acquisition. Some of our program participants in the northern part of the country who graduated from batik-making classes now make batik that they sell at an outpost owned by their trainer. One program participant exhibited the jewelry she made at a bazaar. Some women graduated from the carpentry and shoemaking courses while others have used their sponsorship funds for rearing goats, starting small poultry farms or buying sewing machines. In one community, Aku, a few women came together and started evening literacy classes on their own by paying a retired teacher who coaches them twice a week. In one of the communities, Umulumgbe, one of the former program participants is now earning money by taking pictures of program participants engaged in their new skills – pictures the women usually want to send to their sponsors.
2003 Exchange Visit
In late 2003, four program participants and one of Women for Women International – Nigeria’s staff members were selected to participate in an exchange visit to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia from September 14th-October 3rd. The women returned to Nigeria with a greater awareness of the culture of the United States. During their trip, they learned about composting, fruit drying, advocacy, and literacy training. We are currently in the process of planning ways in which they can use their new knowledge to educate their peers. Each woman is responsible for for training at least 500 women in her own community. In April of this year, five of the women that provided training from the United States will visit Nigeria to provide additional training for the participants.
Permit me to reproduce an except of a commencement address read by Victoria Okara, one of the program participants who traveled to America for the exchange visit, during the graduation ceremony in her community on 24th November, 2003 in Aku:
“We are promising you that this light you have handed over to us will not extinguish in our hands. We hope to please you in our group projects. We have planned and are still planning to fight the issue of Oijiloshi our community. (In this tradition, a woman, who is carrying a child out of wedlock, is forced by her family to marry a man who has passed away in order for the child to bear his name. It is thought this will save the woman, family and child from shame.) This is because, from your teachings, we understand that:
1. It is infringing on women’s human rights;
2. The girl in question is nothing but a glorified servant; and,
3. The practice promotes the spread of HIV/AIDS.
The mistake has been made in the past and we hope to fight future occurrences.”
Men’s Training
Last year, 100 men selected from Enugu and Plateau States, including Christians and Muslims, participated in “Men Gender Sensitivity Training” classes developed by Women for Women International -- Nigeria. The training was based on a “Men’s Manual” developed by Women for Women International that included topics such as Democracy and Voting, HIV/AIDS, Violence Against Women, and Family Planning. The men selected were village heads, chiefs and leaders. Already in Plateau State, we are beginning to see the effects of the training. Owing to the training they acquired, the men divided their community into three zones and held outreach programs in Gwafan, Gwash, Nukpis, Furaka, and Jos Jarawa villages. Some of them used cultural ceremonies, including weddings, naming ceremonies, and burials, to educate their villages on a variety of topics. Often, they focused on HIV/AIDS prevention and education, since the disease is decimating families everyday.
In addition, the trained men in the north have already translated the first chapter of the “Men’s Manual” into the local Hausa language, and plan to translate the entire manual to make it accessible to local leaders and villages. In the southern part of the country, some of the participants are gradually making changes in their communities by ensuring that women are part of the decision-making processes. In one local village, five women were made members of the Parent/Teachers Association for the first time. In another, men supported a woman as Treasurer for the Town Union Association.
Thank you again for the support you have provided to women in Nigeria. Together, we are making a difference.
Best Regards,
Ngozi Eze
Director
|
|
