TQM report,

A non-governmental organisation, Keeping It Real (KIR) Foundation, in partnership with ‘We Will Rise Initiative,’ has empowered 15 small business owners with disabilities in the ICT sector with two small generators, eight laptops, three printers, three rework stations, two mobile phones and registration on an online platform for VTU and payment of bills to scale up their businesses.

The recipients were 12 persons with physical disability, one deaf, and two blind persons engaged in running business centres, repair of phones and computers and selling of recharge cards.

One of the recipients, Amadi Henry, who got a small generator and printer and has been running his business centre since 2016, said with COVID-19, business had been really slow and the fact that he did not have a functional generator made it the more difficult.

The Volunteer Executive Director of KIR Foundation, Bitebo Gogo, said that Foundation decided to support the beneficiaries because they hardly get grants from government or the private sector, since they are not in the mainstream and are easily overlooked.

At a one-day workshop on ‘The ICT Opportunities for Disability-Inclusive Development’ held in Port Harcourt, with 78 persons in attendance, 49 of who were with disabilities, an aide to Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, Mr. Ibifuro Asawo, said the state government would be more disability-inclusive in its ICT training this year.

He disclosed that the government has decided to give youth with disabilities 50 slots in the forthcoming ICT training, titled, ‘Codegaminator 7.0’ to cover ICT skills, such as robotics, graphic design, animation, game development, web design and database administration.

Initiative for the Liberalization of Physically Challenged People in Nigeria (ILPCPN) and Gidanta Care Unit Initiative have jointly set plans in motion to empower 500 Persons with Disabilities in Bauchi State.

The CEO, Hamza Waziri Muhammad Dukku, revealed this at a presentation of capacity building on small-scale enterprises talk with the theme: Variously Impaired Persons Empowerment Project.

Waziri, a member of the Mandela Washington alumni added that the project will empower at least 10 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) every month until it meets a target of 500 PWDs within the year.

Food items in the form of groundnuts for peanut production and ground-nut oil, soya-beans for the making of “Awara”, a popular local delicacy, tiger-nuts for making “Kunun Aya”, a popular locally-made non-alcoholic drink and “Zobo”, another well-liked drink with good health benefits, will be distributed to the beneficiaries.

These packages will be accompanied with a N5,000.00 take-off grant funded by the CEO of ILPCPN.

According to Waziri, the project is a reciprocal gesture to America as a way of showing collective appreciation for believing and recognizing the capabilities inherent in Persons with Disabilities down here in Nigeria.

“As the first-ever duly appointed Chairman for the Agency for People with Disabilities in Bauchi State, a project of this nature had been among the first schemes I had always wanted to carry out – and at a much bigger scale which reaches an even larger audience.

“All what this empowerment project means to me and my fellow Mandela Washington alumni is our own way of showing our gratitude for the investment the American government has made in us. We’re giving back to, or rather sharing with, our society a gift bestowed on us by a part of humanity on another continent who realize that we all exist on the same global stage. Despite having physical and mental Disabilities, we are still acknowledged as humans.” He said.

Senior Special Assistant to the Bauchi State Governor on employment matters, Khalid Barau is set to empower some ten Persons with Disabilities in the State by end of next month.

The offer was made in support of Initiative for the Liberalization of Physically Challenged People in Nigeria (ILPCPN) and Gidanta Care Unit’s collaborative project to empower 500 Persons with Disabilities, ten persons at a time.

The project, with theme: “Variously Impaired Persons Empowerment Project” has set in motion plans to distribute food items and cash grant of N5,000 to each beneficiary.

Thanking the SSA on behalf of Persons With Diasabilities, the CEO, ILPCPN, Hamza Waziri, expressed gratitude for the willingness to empower PWDs. He added that the project is a scheme he intends to implement every month till the target 500 PWDs is reached.

TQM report,

FACICP Disability Plus, A Disabled Peoples Organization has launched Gender Based Violence Monitoring and Advocacy Partnership, GBV-MAP with the aim of ensuring the inclusion of Women with Disabilities in all GBV response.

The GBV-MAP, which is a collaboration between Women’s rights movement and Disabled Women’s Organization, was launched during a roundtable meeting to develop guidelines for the inclusion of WWDs in GBV interventions in the COVID-19 response, organized by FACICP Disability Plus with support from Mobility International, USA.

Ekaete Judith Umoh, Executive Director, FACICP Disability Plus, disclosed that GBV-MAP has been set up to “facilitate strategic partnership between Women with disabilities and other critical stakeholders for the purpose of sustaining advocacy and monitoring of inclusive GBV interventions.”

She also stressed that the roundtable discussion was to strengthen the capacity of Women’s rights Advocate, the Media, Disability Inclusion Advocates, GBV –Focused Ministries Departments and Agencies to demand for more inclusion of WWDs in GBV interventions.

Umoh thereafter urged diverse participants at the meeting to continuously ensure the inclusion of WWDs in all GBV response as WWDs are worst hit especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier, while presenting the report of a rapid response survey conducted by FACICP Disability Plus, Inclusion Development Consultant, Dr. Adebukola Adebayo revealed that, “the intersection between disability and gender increases vulnerability of persons with disabilities (PWDs) especially for women and girls with disabilities.

“As shown in several credible international researches, the vulnerability of WWDs particularly in low and middle income countries is higher than in more developed climes. This situation has been worsened by the crises created by the prevailing COVID-19 global pandemic.”

Dr. Adebayo also added that, “women and girls with disabilities have been found to be increasingly vulnerable to poverty due to several forms of discrimination manifesting through culturally rooted male preferences and universal devaluation of disabilities.”

On her part, Dr. Amina Saliu, Women’s Rights Advocate, stressed that laws in the society “should protect the right of women whether disabled or not and women should always be included in all provisions of the law”.

She noted that WWDs should live safely in a space without any form of discrimination or abuse, adding that government’s interventions must be inclusive of Women with Disabilities.

While speaking on the role of CSOs and Media in Promoting Inclusive GBV interventions for WWDs, Blessing Oladunjoye, Publisher of BONews Service, tasked Disabled Women Leaders and organizations to establish strategic partnership with the media for the purpose of advancing issues of WWDs.

Present at the roundtable discussion were; Executive Secretary of the National Disability Commission of Persons with Disabilities, Representatives of Women’s Rights Organizations and WWDs from various clusters.

By CHARLES IWUOHA

No fewer than 600 youths including persons with disabilities of Enugu State will be benefiting from the Youth ICT and Skill Acquisition Project (YISAP) of the Baywood Foundation.

Kicking-off the project on Monday in Udi near Enugu, Country Director of the foundation, Mr Chukwudi Ojielo, said that the training would involve 200 youths from a council area in each of the three senatorial zones.

Ojielo said that the Udi council area had been selected to represent the Enugu West senatorial zone; Igboeze North council area for Enugu North senatorial zone and Enugu East council area for Enugu East senatorial zone.

He said that at the end of the training, which would last for three months, a seed fund would be given to the best 100 youths among the 600.

The country director explained that those the seed fund of between N45,000 and N60,000 would be given to, would be those who performed exceptionally well in terms of attendance and learning capacity.

“Baywood Foundation is working in partnership with the Coca-Cola Foundation to train 600 youths selected from three council areas in the three senatorial zones of the state.

“Coca-Cola Foundation has provided us, the Baywood Foundation, with a grant to train the 600 youths, including persons with disabilities, for three months on various empower skills that do not necessarily require a shop for a start.

“We would be training all of the youths on how to leverage on technology, the internet, as their mobile shop to get business patronage and get empowered.

“The trainees would be trained on barbing, make-up, household essentials, confectionaries, photography, photo and video making and editing; ICT and digital marketing design etc.

“However, each of the trainees must learn ICT and digital marketing design in order to use their mobile phones as their digital-mobile shops and skill promotion platforms without going to rent a physical shop,” he said.

On how the foundation selected 200 out of 675 that applied for the training in the Udi council area, Ojielo said that the criteria included; being resident in Udi council area; being between 18 and 35 years and having time for the training.

He, however, urged the trainees to take the skill acquisition seriously since for those selected; there were others not so lucky within the council area to benefit.

“The whole essence is to get empowered and help your family financially as well as teach others so that they can be empowered too,” he added.

Earlier, the Chairman of Udi council area, Chief Ifeanyi Agu, thanked the Baywood Foundation and the Coca-Cola Foundation for selecting the council area as one of the pilot council areas to kick-start the project.

Agu, who was represented by the Supervisor for Education and Youths, Mr Fred Ozo, urged the trainees to put in their best and take advantage of the opportunity provided at their door steps.

Baywood foundation had in January 2021 received a grant award of $98,925 from the Coca-Cola Foundation to empower 600 youths in Enugu state through Youth ICT and Skills Acquisition Project (YISAP).