ABU Zaria, NGO empower women with skills in Kudan

ABU Zaria, NGO empower women with skills in Kudan

By Mustapha Yauri

Empowerment

Hunkuyi (Kaduna State), March 13, 2020 (NAN) Over 100 women from Kudan Local Government Area of Kaduna State have benefitted from a skills acquisition training by the Gender Policy Unit of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, in collaboration with Women Connect Initiative, an NGO.

Prof. Binta Abdulkarim, the Head of Gender Policy Unit of the university, made this known while briefing the participants at a one-day workshop  on Friday at Hunkuyi, Kudan local Local Government Area.

She said the programme was part of activities to commemorate the 2020 international women’s day observed on March 8, stressing that the programme is also designed to raise awareness on technical and vocational education.

Abdulkarim, represented by Dr Emmanuel Gaba, said the programme was aimed at enhancing vocational skills among women and boosting girl-child school enrollment in the area.

She added that the participants were drawn from 10 wards in the local government and they were trained on making of bags, necklaces, perfumes, weaving and other handworks.

Mr Elisha Timothy, the Programme Officer of the unit, said the programme was designed to achieve a policy change towards scaling up the enrolment of girl-child into technical and vocational education.

Timothy added that the unit was implementing a one-year programme under its Advocacy for Compulsory Technical and Vocational Education for Rural Women (ACTIVE for Rural Women) with funding from RISE UP.

According to him, lack of bye laws by government is of part of the reasons why the so many skills acquisition programmes in the area were not sustained.

“The programme was a move to inform the policy makers on the importance of making bye laws for technical and vocational education with a view to get budgetary allocation for it,’’ he said.

The Co-convener of the programme, Hajiya Murjanatu Shika, who is also the Chief Executive Officer, Women Connect Initiative, an NGO, said the programme would be continues.

“We are not stopping until we are fully sure that the women in the area are capable of taking care of themselves or they learnt the skills on their own.

“However, this is the first step, we will keep coming and keep coaching until many of them are okay,’’ she said.

She commended the support and commitment of the local government on the programme, adding the group will sustain the relationship with the local government council and other key stakeholders.

Shika said the programme targets large proportion of women in the community, stressing that there are over 100 women undergoing difference skills at the training.

According to her, the training is the first step, “we are going to give them startups package which will enable them commence the production of the things they have learnt.”

“After that, we will also come back to look at their market abilities and also look at other ways to support them further,’’ she said.

She therefore urged men in the society to support women to support women to learn and acquire the skills towards reducing poverty in the country. (NAN)

AM/MST

Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola