This is just as the foundation donated cash to seven widows while it equally set up a young lady with beauty salon equipment in Egbe-Ikotun community.
The convener of the initiative, a Nigerian in diaspora, Rosemary Akaette, explained her mission to economically empower women was for them to be financially independent.
Akaette stated that empowerment will be a continuous activity that would positively impact women and their families, her concern is to make them self-reliant, productive and effectively play their role as wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters in their various homes and the community at large.
She added that the Covid-19 pandemic brought about certain hardship; hence empowering women with skills would give them a sense of belonging as well as make them productive.
“I grew up wanting to help indigent women because of their vulnerability to different kinds of abuse since they practically depend on their husbands to provide for them even when he is also financially handicapped. There is a feminisation of poverty in Nigeria and the face of women is usually the face of poverty.
The Nigeria representative of (LE), and pastor of Love Christian Centre, John Okwuone, emphasised the need to scale up wealth for women, which the organisation started six months ago where it caters to seven widows who are given cash monthly for their up-keep.
Okwuone further stated that the skill acquisition training and the empowerment of women is the key to transforming society.
“Today, N25, 000 naira cash was given to seven widows who had been receiving monthly up-keep for six months, they have been equipped with vocational skills and the cash is to enable them start a business”, he said, adding that stressed that their perceptions about life have changed.
Guest speaker at the event Onipede Olubunmi gave the charge to women to courageously challenge societal status quos, gender bias and disparities through excellence in service and responsibilities; dedicated hard work on the skill continuous self-development through the acquisition of relevant skills, creating opportunities for younger female women to learn and grow; collaborating more strategically with one another and with male acquaintance and also to proactively take up responsibilities that support their growth and visibility.
One of the participants, Esther Sylvester, who spoke on behalf of the widows, said she was grateful for the vocational training and the craft she had learnt during the course of the programme and also thanked the organisers for the opportunity.
Also Pastor Jedidiah Onuoha encouraged the women to make good use of the skills they have learnt and change their stories. Onuoha said the programme achieved its aim, because not only were the women trained, they were able to replicate what they had learnt. Thus the empowerment programme was tagged “Sought Out”
(Vanguard)
