Tag: Cross River State

By Christian Njoku

A Cross section of women who were internally displaced from Bakassi and  camped in Akwa Ikot Eyo Edem Village in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River have disclosed that they have gained more respect in their community.

The women made the assertion on Friday in their community during a distribution of Okra, Cucumber and pumpkin seeds by Care for Social Welfare International, (CASWI).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the empowerment initiatives which started in 2022 was implemented by CASWI with funds from Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and supported by UN Women.

NAN also reports that the women who were  part of the Bakassi returnees and could not be settled in Ekpri obutong where others are due to shortage of houses, settled in Akwa Ikot Eyo Edem Village in Akpabuyo LGA.

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Speaking with NAN, Mrs Arit Friday, Leader of one of the two groups in which the women were divided for effective management, said they now have their cooperative society and personal bank accounts after the training on financial management.

While noting that all the selected women of their community were part of the project, she appealed to CASWI and its partners for more initiatives to empower the women and make them more self reliant in their community.

Similarly, Mrs Blessing Ekpenyong, Leader of the second group of about 100 women said what the women needed more was actually trainings which would enable them catch their fishes themselves and not just money.

Commending the Initiative, she said before the distribution of seeds to the women on Friday, they were first trained on proper ways of cultivating cucumber, pumpkin and other plants in a demonstration farm in Ikpan-Nkaya community in 2023.

She said the farm was very successful but they suffered a lot of loses because people around Ikpan-Nkaya community kept on stealing from the farm and the women could not get much.

“However, today we have adopted a new strategy as the seeds are distributed to the women who now have their personal farms in Akwa Ikot Eyo Edem and they will plant and harvest their produce.

“We are very grateful but as you know, not all women like farming, so we appeal for trainings in soap making, tailoring, to also empower other women who may not like to farm,” she said.

Speaking on the project, Mr Ifeanyi Damian, Project Manager for CASWI said the essence of the project was to empower women and raise their voices in their community so that they could be part of the decision making process.

Damian said after distributing the seeds to the women, they would be coming back in three weeks time to inspect the farms to see how well they were doing.

“Also, following the demands of the women, in a week time, we will be coming again to train all the women of this community on soap making and give them starter packs to enable them commence operation.

“However, the starter packs will be only for the women who were part of the training, as we do not want wastages,” he maintained.

It would be recalled that CASWI and its partners had earlier inaugurated a “garri” processing plant in Ekpri obutong IDP Camp in Bakassi and was constructing another plant in Calabar Municipality for refugees.

(NAN)

No fewer than 45 people from Obanliku, Obudu and Bekwara Federal Constituency have been trained and empowered by the GFO Orim Foundation in Cross River State.

The event which took place at Obudu Council Secretariat, was a collaboration between the GFO Orim Foundation and the Industrial Training Fund (ITF). Captured for the training were 35 young teenage mothers and at-risk girls, who were trained in beauty care and solar power installation, respectively.

Speaking at the event, the member representing Ogoja state constituency in the Cross River House of Assembly, Engr Thomas Aruku, applauded GFO Orim Foundation for the consistency in driving its vision of empowering youths in northern Cross River.

Aruku, who was the chairman of the occasion, noted that GFO Orim Foundation’s empowerment programmes have been going on smoothly in the last 6 years, pointing out that despite the fact the Chairman and benefactor of the Foundation, Chief Martins Orim, was no longer in power, the exercise had not been interrupted nor put on hold.

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Chairman of GFO Orim Foundation, Chief Martins Orim, while thanking the ITF for the collaboration, said “the idea behind this programme is to create wealth for our people. It is to take our youths off the street, so that we reduce the menace of insecurity and decay in our society that push our youths into ‘Yahoo Yahoo’. This gives me the opportunity to give back to my people.”

He appealed to the federal government agency to continue to “leave your door open. I am waiting anxiously for you to beckon on us for the programme we have for this year. We are still to partner and we will continue to partner with you to take out as many youths as we can off the street.”

“Like I said in the last edition, this is a passion for me because I am a young man that did not grow up abroad. I grow up here in my local community. I have been to the farm. I have interacted with my peer group, I have interacted with my own very village. I’ve schooled in Obudu here. I understand the level of poverty of our people and I understand the reason to return back and provide my shoulder for my people to lean on. Once God gave me the opportunity to assume a high office in the society, the first thing I thought about doing was how I can return back to the society.

“What can I do to affect the society positively. I conceived the idea of floating this NGO. I launched it in less than one year in office. I’ve done several empowerment and trainings before started collaborating with ITF. I’ve trained people as mechanics; I’ve trained people as electricians, both automobile and housing; I’ve trained people as tailors; I’ve trained people as hairdressers; I’ve trained drivers; I’ve trained so many people. A lot are working. They are doing well. A lot of plumbers, tilers, masons. I’ve trained a lot of youths,” he said.

Chief Orim therefore congratulated the beneficiaries and charged them to make judicious use of the skills acquired and the start-up kits given to them so as to create wealth with it and impact their lives positively.

Also speaking, the Head of Training, ITF, Engr Suleiman, stated that the beneficiaries went through intensive three month training and were certified to provide services in their various specializations. He tasked them to make good use of their skills they have acquired for the betterment of society.

Commending GFO Orim Foundation for the gesture, a former Commissioner in the Local Government Service Commissioner, Mr Kelvin Adah, said “for those of us in Obanliku, Chief Martins Orim is a household name. He said done so many good things in Obanliku. I don’t need to talk too much or enumerate what he has done for that local government. God should give him the wisdom, the enablement to continue his good works.”

Similarly, the deputy speaker of Cross River House of Assembly, Hon. Sylvester Agabi; the Community Relations Officer to the Governor (Bekwara), Patrick Oko; the Obudu Chapter Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Hilary Ibli, and other stakeholders present at the event, applauded Chief Orim’s empowerment initiative. They urged the beneficiaries to pray for GFO Orim Foundation for God’s continuous blessings and to keep doing more to reduce the crime rate in society.

Some of the beneficiaries who spoke, thanked Chief Orim for adding value to their lives through training and empowerment. They noted that with the empowerment, Chief Martin Orim had succeeded in removing people from the street and turning them into self-employed persons. They however prayed for God’s blessing upon him.