ActionAid moves against gender gaps, others in Kogi

ActionAid Nigeria has trained women peer-education facilitators in 12 communities to check gender gaps, harmful traditional practices against widows as well as girl-child education in Kogi State

At a bi-annual meeting of the facilitators organised by the organisation in collaboration with Participation I Initiative for Behavioural Change in Development (PIBCID) in Lokoja, the beneficiaries held that the boy had positively impacted their communities, especially the women through trainings.

The programme was to build the capacity of facilitators to respond to obvious gaps and needs of women at the community level as well as organise women around issues that affect them politically, socially and economically.

The facilitators were drawn from Ofuloko, Ugbedemagwu, Ujagba and Okpakpata communities in Igalamela-Odolu Local Council as well as Osisi, Osara I and Osaragada settlements in Adavi council area.

Mrs. Enemi Alih from Ofuloko said her group has succeeded in reducing widows’ burdens by addressing some of the unwholesome traditional practices they were hitherto subjected to.
Prior to the intervention, she said: “They (widows) were subjected to six-month mourning period in addition to paying some levies before regaining their freedom. That solitary confinement has been abolished and efforts are being made to reduce the period.”

On her part, Mrs. One Awa from Ugbedemagwu lauded ActionAid for introducing the peer education, which she noted, had promoted good parenting and enhanced girl-child enrolment in schools.According to Mrs. Faith Mattaga from Osisi, through her cycle’s (group) sensitisation, some couples in her community had embraced child spacing.

For Hajia Hajaratu Momoh from Osara I, the programme has assisted women immensely in her area, especially on the need to shed weight and observe sufficient rest, as well as inculcation of good neighbourliness for peace and development.The ActionAid Advisor on Partnership and Local Rights Programmes, Mrs. Hajara Adamu, had said the meeting was to review the facilitators’ activities in their respective communities.

To the ActionAid Programme Manager in the state and Executive Director of PIBCID, Mrs. Gift Owonipa, the peer education scheme nationwide in 2012, adds that a refresher was organised for facilitators from seven communities of the state in September 2017.