Onyeka Onwenu
UNITED Nations High Commission on Refugee in partnership with the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) have commenced a vocational skills training programme for female Internally Displaced Persons across states affected by insurgency.
The training programme, which began yesterday in Abuja, witnessed the commencement of skills acquisition for the first batch of 50 female IDPs.
Director General of NCWD, Onyeka Onwenu explained that the first batch of IDP would be trained for two weeks and during the period the IDPs would be housed, catered for and trained in different vocational skills like; tailoring, catering, among other skills they may want to acquire.
To enable the displaced persons start up their business, they would be paid a stipend of N28, 000 each, and in addition they would also be given the equipment to which they have acquired skills.
Onwenu disclosed that the project which would last for 1-year is to train all the female IDPs in batches of 50 IDPs, adding that after training all the IDPs in Abuja, they intend to move to camps in the North Eastern state till the project elapse.
The UNHCR Country Representative Ms Angele Dikongue-Atanga at the inauguration of the IDPs training informed that the aim of the training programme was to provide opportunity for proper rehabilitation of the IDP women and children through enhanced psychosocial, vocational and business skills.
She noted that the training programme would also go a long way in restoring their dignity and to ensure diversification of their means of livelihoods, in camp sites and host communities.
Dikongue-Atanga said while ensuring immediate, life-saving humanitarian assistance is necessary and urgent, authorities, civil society organizations, among other stakeholders in the country must identify sustainable solutions for the IDPs and host communities.
She pointed out UNHCR and it local partners hope to reach a limited number of the most vulnerable displaced populations and host communities affected by the insurgency activities in the Northeast region.
She added, “These intervention will help restore their lost individual and communal livelihoods and are able to make safe and sustainable living that meets their basic needs, contributes to their dignity and provides protection for full enjoyment of their human rights at displacement and return locations.
The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Senator Aisha Jummai noted that there was a lot more to do in order to restore the dignity of the IDPs, she said apart from the daily handouts of food ration and other basic necessities of life, what happens to most of them, when they finally go back home is critical issue to be addressed.
She stressed the need for a programme for the holistic rehabilitation of the IDPs with a goal of resettling them into a meaningful livelihood, which would address their strategic interest.
She noted that the training by the national Center for Women Development (NCWD) offers an opportunity for proper rehabilitation of the IDPs through psycho-social and vocational skills, for the purpose of restoring their dignity and ensuring diversification of their means of livelihoods not only while in the camp, but even, after they leave the camps.
The Minister further pointed out that the 1-year project is aimed at equipping the female IDPs with necessary vocational skills in a practical manner that would bring about improvement in the socio-economy wellbeing of the female IDPs and that of their families.
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