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October 2004
Greetings! The staff and participants of Women for Women International – Nigeria hope you and your families are doing well, and we send our regards and best wishes. It gives me great joy to correspond with you concerning some aspects of the Women for Women International -- Nigeria program. Presently, we have nearly 1,700 participants in our programs in Enugu and Jos. Before the year ends, 650 women will graduate from the program, and 650 new women will be enrolled. We are indeed grateful to you, our sponsors, for making it possible for us to reach out to so many new program participants.
Last month, as part of the participants’ monthly rights awareness classes, one of our field staff members, Francisca Odo, spoke to 75 women on the dangers, implications and human rights abuses that occur when women or young girls are lured into marrying “dead” men, a practice which takes place in some of the communities where we work. A woman marries a deceased man in order to continue a family lineage, primarily when the woman is carrying an illegitimate child. This is seen as a favor to the woman’s family, as it provides a surrogate “father” to the woman’s child and gives the child a “proper” surname. After this, the woman is seen as a servant to the man’s family, and is responsible for many of the household duties, including cleaning, cooking, working in the fields, etc. In some cases, she is even abused verbally or physically. By educating the women on its harmful effects, we hope to reduce this practice.
Our program participants are also benefiting from their other rights awareness and leadership education trainings through the Renewing Women’s Life Skills (ReneWLS) program. They repeatedly tell us how the program has positively impacted their lives and stated that they are now more independent, possess more knowledge on reproductive health issues, and do not depend on men in their lives as they did before. They have also said that they want to ensure that their children, regardless of gender, are enrolled in schools.
In addition to providing rights awareness training to the women in our program, Women for Women International – Nigeria also conducted our second “Men’s Gender Sensitivity Training” class for 25 men late this summer. The training was based on a “Men’s Manual” developed by Women for Women International that includes topics such as democracy and voting, HIV/AIDS, violence against women, and family planning. This is a fantastic way for men to understand the importance of women in their society. Our work with male leaders in Jos in the past has led to the reduction of the dangerous “widowhood practice,” a traditional practice where women undergo physical and psychological harm to prove their innocence in their husband’s death, regardless of how he passed away. We hope our work with this second class of men will have similar results, especially in prevention of domestic violence.
Women for Women International -- Nigeria has also been increasingly working to develop and improve our vocational skills training programs. Late this summer we were honored to have in our midst an official from the US Department of State Bureau and Cultural Affairs, Carol Herrera. Over the past year, Women for Women International – Nigeria conducted an exchange program, funded by the State Department, for five of our participants. In addition, trainers from the US traveled to Nigeria to provide additional “train the trainers” sessions to the exchange members and other participants in literacy, soap making, and solar fruit drying. The women who participated in the exchange are now responsible for training 500 additional women each. Carol met with women who recently started our literacy program and who can now write their names and read the alphabet. The women said that literacy training “has opened up a new world for them.”
In addition to providing the vocational skills trainings taught to our women by the exchange participants, we have also been researching other vocational trainings that would provide viable income-generating opportunities in the communities where we work. Since July 2004, 780 program participants have benefited from skill trainings in producing shampoo, tablet soaps, liquid insecticides and confectioneries. This is fantastic for some women in rural groups, who can use natural ingredients that are readily available to make these goods. Currently, women in more urban areas are also participating in sewing, shoe repair and photography lessons; these are skills that women can market to others in their local community.
Program participants also continue to use their sponsorship funds to invest in an income-generating project that will help them support themselves and their families in the future. Some women have chosen to purchase a grinding machine for grains, or 50 liter iron pots for cooking palm oil, which they then sell at local markets. Others have started selling local snacks such as chin-chin and puff-puff, a kind of donut.
Finally, I wanted to share with you one of our “success stories.” Last month we learned that a former program participant and one of the women who participated in the exchange, Grace Eneonyia, has been employed in a hotel where she cooks African dishes. She has also learned to make some continental dishes, such as pies and scrambled eggs. She has enrolled in an evening secondary school and it will take her six years to complete the program. She is happy to be able to work and go to school at the same time and she is so proud of her achievement. Women for Women International is happy to see her succeed for herself and her family.
Till I write again, on behalf of the program participants and the Nigerian staff, have joy-filled and memorable days.
Yours sincerely,
Ngozi Eze
Country Director
Women for Women International -- Nigeria
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