No fewer than 237 internally displaced persons ( IDPs ) comprising children, adolescent boys and girls have benefited from the distribution of vocational start-up kits by GOALPrime , a non governmental organisation (NGO). It was for empowerment sustainability and economic development following their training on various skills in Mafa local government area of Borno State.
The training and the distribution of the start-up kits which was implemented by GOALPrime Organisation Nigeria in partnership with Street Child Nigeria, through financing by Education Cannot Wait ( ECW ) multi-year resilience programme, in which Norwegian Refugee Commission ( NRC ) was a guarantee, saw the beneficiaries going home with make-up kits, barbing tools comprising clippers, generators, standing solar fans, bags of flour for pasta making , soap making kits and kits for groundnut oil extraction among others.
Speaking during yesterday’s distribution exercise in Mafa town, the country director of GOALPrime Organisation Nigeria, Dr Christopher Chinedumuije, said the programme is an education emergency project with a livelihood component for adolescent boys and girls affected by the decade-long Boko Haram insurgency.
He said the entire idea of the project is to ensure continuity of learning for children, adolescent boys and girls, as well as motivation for the adolescents to want to learn skills.
” So we integrated vocational skills training into the package. And when you integrate vocational skills training, it is not about the training alone, they also need to be empowered with start-up kits so that they are able to make a living out of it. Understanding the state of livelihood of different households, these adolescent boys and girls while learning, can also go about these livelihood skills, make monies out of it ,ensure they are able to finance themselves to schools and also contribute to the livelihoods of their households.
Speaking further, Senior Education Officer Street Child Nigeria, Mitchell Orji, said the training and distribution of start-up kits is part of the project they have been doing for the past three years, adding that it is part of a plan to ensure that targetted beneficiaries have sustainable education and also retention in schools.
She said as part of the retention mechanism, they have ensured that they provided the learners with vocational training to build their capacities and ensure that there is support for their livelihood to ensure economic empowerment within the communities of Mafa.
” We have a make- up category; we have pasta making category, we have soap making category, we have soap making category, and we have barbing category among others. As part of monitoring plan, we have ensured full participation of stakeholders of the communities, and also with parents and caregivers of the beneficiaries. We have over 237 beneficiaries in Mafa and this number will be replicated in Adamawa and Yobe states,” Orji said.
