From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
A Non-Governmental Organisation, Society for Family Health (SFH), has trained over 200 adolescent married girls on various skills acquisitions, to improve their livelihood.
Project Director Roselyn Ode stated on Monday that the training programme was in partnership with the Kaduna State Government.
Ode explained that the project was to present some of the girls that have been trained in batches for the past year and to showcase the impact of the work of the organisation.
She said the organisation is open for partnership with any agency to 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.
The Project Director explained that the empowerment component code-named A360 programme provides a holistic system where adolescent married girls access skills of their choice.
She added that after skills acquisition, they are empowered and supported to start up and 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 1000 of them 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.
“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.”
Sadiq said the response from the community leaders and traditional Institutions was supportive and encouraging.
