By Israel Bulus, Kaduna
A Non-Governmental Organization, Society for Family Health (SFH), has trained over 2,000 adolescent married girls on various skills acquisitions, to improve their livelihood.
Project Director Roselyn Ode stated on Monday in Zaria that the training program was in partnership with the Kaduna State Government and aimed at improving the effectiveness of the exercise among the girls.
Ode explained that the project was to present some of the girls that they have trained in batches for the past year programowcase the impact of the work the organization has done.
She said the organization is open to partnership with any agency to replicate the same to reach and impact more on the critical mass adolescent married girls in the Country.
She noted that their training was able to inculcate the spirit of ”I can do” to learn and initiate business skills with their clients to enable them to succeed.
The Project Director explained that the empowerment component code-named A360 program provides a holistic system where adolescent married girls access skills of their choice.
“Out of the 2011 adolescent married girls that we have trained, over one thousand have already established their businesses while 200 have upskilled and expanded their businesses
” The adolescent married girls were trained in the areas of; Poultry farming, Skin Bags, fishponds, Soap making, scents, Blankets, and Cakes among others.
” The long-term impact was for married Adolescent Girls to have improved agency and financial resources to lead the lives they desire and the ability to make and act on decisions that involve the control over and allocation of financial resources, financial independence, and owning a sustainable business of their own,” Ode said.
” The Adolescent married girls were also Supported to improve their livelihoods and economic outcomes, going beyond access to contraception to support girls’ empowerment holistically towards sustained human capital development,” Ode said.
Dr. A’ishatu Sadiq, Director of Health Kaduna State, said, “We were a little bit worried at the beginning because of the cultural limitations and the plurality of the environment.”
She said the response from the community leaders and traditional Institutions was supportive and encouraging.
Princess Adenike Akindele, who was on a courtesy visit to the Emir of Zaria and a special guest at the event respectively commended SFH for the training
She said her NGO is also gathering information to offer support to the less privileged because Government alone cannot be able to it alone,” Princess said.
Some of the participants thanked SFH for the training and promised to step down the training to others.
End.