NGO empowers 10,000 girls with vocational skills in Ogun

An NGO, Society for Family Health (SFH), says it has trained over 10,000 girls of between 15 and 19 years on various vocational skills in Sango-Ota area of Ogun to make them self-reliant.

The SFH Programme Manager in the state, Mr Ibrahim Hamza,, said this during the training exercise on Tuesday in Sango-Ota,Ogun.
Hamza said that the NGO had surpassed its target of 3,000 limit since its commencement in March.

According to him, it is A360 Economic Empowerment Optimised Project, implemented by SFH and funded by Total Energies, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and other partners.

Hazmat said that the empowerment programme, involving the intervention of adolescent girls within the age of 15 to19 years, was aimed at improving uptake of voluntary  conceptive among adolescent girls.

He said that the project, which commenced in 2016 across the country, was in phases and would run through July at Sango-Ota and environs.

“There is the need to properly mentor and provide the young girls with appropriate vocational skills so as to be self-reliant, as they are more vulnerable to societal influence,” he said.

According to him, there are facilities in nine different communities where the empowerment programmes were being done in phases.

Hazmat said that the girls had been trained in vocational skills, such as make-up and tying of gele as well as production of liquidity soap and air freshner, among others.

He listed the nine facilities used for the training to include: Ado PHC 1, Ewupe PHC 2, Ilupewo PHC 3, Abule-Iroko PHC 4, Ifelagba PHC 5, Ifelewa PHC 6, Agbara PHC 7, Ibgbesa PHC 8 and Iloye PHC 9.

Hazmat said that the organisers had employed mobilisers who would interact and introduce the empowerment scheme to young girls.

He said that those interested in the programmes were given referral letters to the “young provider” who began to counsel them.

Hamza added that some women were also educated on how to train their children in order to make the society a better place.

Miss Taiwo Alatise, one of the beneficiaries of liquid soap making, commended the organisers, saying that the programme would impact positively on the lives of the young girls.

She said that the proceeds from the soap would be used to assist her parents toward furthering her education.

Another beneficiary, Mrs Abibat Fatoye, promised to use the communication skill acquired from the programme to educate her children effectively.