Foundation Targets 1m Women, Youths For Empowerment

The Queen Juliet Endowment Foundation has unveiled a nationwide empowerment programme targeting one million women and youths, with Kano State chosen as the take-off point.

The programme, implemented in collaboration with Chief Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, the Iyaloja-General of Nigeria, was officially flagged in Kano, with the support of the Kano State government, the Presidency and other key national stakeholders.

At the event, the organisation’s founder, Ambassador Queen Juliet Uju-Obiaeli, said the initiative was its core programme and aligned with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. She explained that the empowerment drive was designed to promote economic self-reliance among women and youths, particularly in rural communities across the country.

Uju-Obiaeli disclosed that about 500 women have been trained in Kano as part of the first batch of beneficiaries, while the foundation plans to empower at least 3,000 women and youths in the state in phases.

She said the beneficiaries were trained in various vocational and small-scale enterprise skills, including tailoring, hairdressing, soap-making, bead-making, and agro-processing.

According to her, the foundation also distributed start-up equipment such as sewing machines, grinding machines, hairdressing kits and other tools to enable the participants to establish sustainable livelihoods and support their families.

The head of Mission of the International Peace Commission Nigeria and global vice chairman of the International Commission for Peace and Good Governance, Ambassador Hussein Coomassie, said Kano was selected because of its strategic position in the North, adding that the programme would spread to other northern states, while similar interventions would continue in the South.