The Rotary International District 9110 has said that about N20m was spent to train and empower women and girls in Ogun and Lagos states.

The Governor Rotary District 9110, Mrs. Omotunde Lawson, said that the project was about economic development, empowering people to build and add values to their communities.

“I know that women have not had enough opportunity as men. To a great extent, the females have been maginalised. When I was nominated as the district governor, as a woman, I thought I should focus on the women gender.”

She recalled that she did not waste time to think about ways to empower women. “What we are doing today is just one of the ways to empower women, providing them with start off tools after training. Training without giving them what to use will be wasting away their time.

“My goal before I became governor is to empower 150 and train 300. We were able to train almost 200 and we have empowered over 105 people in Ogun and Lagos states.

“The district 9110 covers Lagos and Ogun states. We started off with Ogun State. We trained over 100. At the end of the three months training, 82 of them excelled and the graduation ceremony took place in Abeokuta on May 11 at June 12 Cultural Centre. It was a big ceremony.

“Before the beneficiaries in Ogun State concluded their training, they started using their skills to make money. The snacks used at the graduation ceremony were made by them. We did not go outside as Rotary to source for them. The adire we wore were made by them.

Some of them even gave testimonial of what they have started doing before they concluded their training. That is the benefit, train one and let that multiply to hundred people,” she said.