Network of Disabled Women(NDW) on Saturday in Abuja organized One day Skill Training For Women and Girls With Disabilities.
The Executive Director, Network of Disabled Women (NDW), Lois Auta in a opening speech said that the project is geared towards championing gender and women equality. It is part of Canada Women’s voice and leadership Project Nigeria which supports regional women organizations and networks that are working to promote womens’ rights and also advance women development and gender equality in developing countries. building institutional capacity and promote network and alliance building for women as critical agent of change.
The project is expected to benefit 100 local women organization and their affiliates in few other states across Nigeria and the project encourage innovative ideas of women with disabilities.
The event is part of activities being carried out by NDW funded by Actionaid and Global Affairs Canada, she added.
The participants at the training who were drawn from different clusters of disability were taken by Barrister Ifenla Oligbinde on Proposal and Grant Writing where they were given tips of how to put together proposals that will be successful while applying for grants. This is to equip these women with the knowledge of applying and getting grants because some of them owns organizations and getting grants can help their work.
The participants were also trained on how to make liquid soap, hand sanitizer and air fresher by Beatrice Mube. The training was more of practical and she also gave them tips on how they can establish their own business, from registration process to production and how to find market for their products.
The highlight of the event was presentation of certificate to all the participants.
In TQM’s chat with Beatrice Mube, she encouraged the women to make use of the knowledge they have acquired, she also called other women with disabilities to always come forward each time there is an opportunity like this and she urged government to encourage women with disabilities because their challenges are double going by the discrimination as a woman and discrimination against a woman with disability.
One of the beneficiaries, Barrister Tracy, a woman with albinism told us that she learnt so many new things but her challenge now is that there is no money to start up. She appreciates Lois Auta and NDW for the initiative while calling on government agencies like CBN to come and partner with NDW to provide soft loans for women with disabilities. She also said that it will not be out of place for the new established National Commission for Persons with disabilities to start up their activities with a project like this because women with disabilities requires a lot of support.
