By Israel Bulus, Kaduna
A non-governmental organization, Society for Family Health (SFH) says it has trained more than 2011 adolescent married girls on various skills acquisitions, to improve their livelihood.
The Project Director Roselyn Ode, stated this on Monday during the closed-out project in Zaria tagged ” Adolescent A360 which was aimed at improving the effectiveness of their exercise among the girls through partnership with the Kaduna State Government.
She explained that the closed-out project was to present some of the girls that they have trained in batches for the past year and to showcase the impact of the work they’ve done and open for partnership with any agency being it Government or Non-Governmental organization so that they can replicate 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.
Ode noted that the empowerment component of the A360 program provides a holistic system where adolescent married girls access skills of their choice and are empowered and supported to start up/ expand businesses of their own, which would improve their quality of life and ensure sustainable sources of their livelihood.
“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.
“Adding,” 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.
Dr. A’ishatu Sadiq, Director of Health Kaduna State, said they 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 commended SFH for training and empowering over 2000 adolescent married girls which would help them to be self-reliant.
She said her NGO also is gathering information to offer support to the less privileged because Government alone cannot be able to it alone.
Some of the participants thanked SFH for the training and promised to step down the training to others.
