Ogbonnaya Ikokwu, Umuahia
Three women groups from Amaba community in Isuikwuato Local Government Area of Abia State have been issued with cheques of one million naira each by the Amaba Daughters Association
Empowerment program.
The empowerment came from daughters of the community living outside the State and the Country to support women living in rural area on petty trading.
The president of the association Mrs Obiageri Ikpechukwu-Onu, explained that program now in its fourth year had moved from individual empowerment to group empowerment, with focus on women, infant and children.
“There is a popular saying that you educate a woman and you educate the nation, same also goes for economic empowerment. I say empowering women is empowering the community.
“Amaba community have three groups namely Ndioha, Amaokwe and Ohoro. Each of the groups were empowered to the tone of one million naira each.
“We are also considering the nursing mothers, infants and children in the community and have mapped out the process and procedure to deliver on that next year.
“We are encouraging the men to group themselves just like the women and come up with an agenda that will translate and give them economic empowerment”, she said.
The Nigeria coordinator of the program Mrs Okwy Chikezie, said the program was intended to reduce poverty amongst women in the community.
She revealed that it started with ten women who were given the sum of fifty thousand naira each in the year 2020.
She said “In the second and third year we also empowered twenty people with money, while the former chief of Army staff Gen. Azubuike Ihejeirika assisted us with yam seedlings to empower another twenty women.
“But this year we asked the women to group themselves and issued them with a cheque of one million naira each.
“They all have different projects they want to do, such as skill acquisition, rental business and confectionery.
We are happy with the way the women organized themselves to come up with business ideas, we encourage them to work hard to succeed and we will do more to encourage them”.
The chairman of the occasion Professor David Onwuka, commended the association for coming up with the nolve idea of empowering indigent women in the community.
He Said,”What they are doing is a wonderful thing and they need to be encouraged. I urge the recipients to invest the money given to them wisely to make more money to be able to solve their individual and collective problems”.