Effectiveness of Vocational Skills
Acquisition Programme on Women & Girls Empowerment.
Poverty and gender inequality are some of
the problems bedeviling the Nigerian society. The group most affected are
girls and women especially those living in the rural areas. These are mostly
those who had early marriages whether willingly or forcefully, school dropouts,
and teenage mothers tied down by multifarious responsibilities and cannot
attend higher school of learnings. They also cannot take up income earning
jobs. The reason for this can be traced to illiteracy or “aborted education”,
coupled with a lack of vocational skills. This inability to get an education or
be trained for a vocation means that girls and women cannot contribute their
quotas to self and societal development.
Education for girls and women is becoming
the most viable and effective solution for gender inequality, economic
independence and growth in developing countries. UNICEF ( 2007) Nigeria Country
Office Information Sheet states that girls education does not only bring about
the immediate benefits of empowering women but is seen as the best investment
in a country’s development. However, many girls and women are illiterates or
semi- literates who do not have a steady means of livelihood. Poverty, early
marriage, teenage pregnancy among others are some of the factors preventing
girls from going to or finishing school. Many adult women are illiterates and
cannot fulfill their dreams of acquiring an education or vocational skill
because of family enormous responsibilities or financial handicap. It is
against this background that the 1990 Jomtien Declaration of Education for All
is important in making a case for ensuring that girls and women have, at least,
basic education and vocational skills so as to become economically
self-reliant.
The “House of Eden-I”, and in line with the
Jomtien Declaration is committed to empowering our girls & women within our
target groups through the vocational skills acquisition programmes, more in
particular, those in the developing rural areas which happens to be our
immediate locality. These are women who have little or no education. Meanwhile,
the Empowering Destiny for Eternity Network Initiative ( Eden-I) does not leave
out the undergraduates, graduates, the underemployed, the underprivileged and
the unemployed . A substantial number of these women/girls that fall within our
target groups have, either being trained or currently undergoing apprenticeship
at the center.
Education, whether formal or informal
enhances lives. It ends or reduces generational poverty and provides a
foundation for a nation’s development. WIKI defines empowerment as not giving
people power but letting out the power in them. It opines that most women
across the globe rely on the informal work sector for an income. If they are
empowered to do more, the possibility for economic growth becomes apparent.
Levelling the playing ground for women
would offer huge potentials to everyone. For example, UNICEF Information Sheet
(2007) states that educating girls and women help develop self- confidence,
protection from sexual exploitation, improved health care, better child
education and poverty reduction for generation to come. Women empowerment is a
global topic. The United Nations included gender and women empowerment in its
development goals as it is an important tool for achieving the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
Women empowerment is “a process of women
identifying their inner strength, and opportunities for economic growth and
their role in reshaping their own destiny”. It is also a process of women
gaining more access to a steady income and economic power or security
What your involvement / supports will do for
us;
(a) It
will not only enhance training, it will also give us the enablement to further
pursue and achieve our goal in the long run.
(b) It
will go a long way by availing a lot more unskilled women & girls the
privilege to acquire at least, a skill for economic self-sustenance or
self-reliance, and by so doing they are not only living above abject poverty,
they can also become an entrepreneur or an employer of labor.
(c) Your
financial or material support will subsequently lead to more training
equipment, more skills, and increase in the number of our beneficiaries being empowered.
(d) The
financial support you give will help us a great deal to hire the services of
very competent instructor(s) so as to reduce the heavy workload done by the
only instructor.
(e) The
more you get involved or support us, the more opportunities will be given to
more and more number of our beneficiaries.
(f) Your
involvement/support will ultimately translate to more women & girls being
empowered through our skills acquisition programmes.
(g) Your
involvement or supports will not only give us the required economic leverage to
continue with our yearly Free-Tuition programmes for the unemployed, it will also
help us to procure more equipment for
the already existing skills, incorporate other perceived skills in order for
more people to benefit.
(h) The
ripple- effect of the above is reduction in unemployment rate, empowerment for the
unemployed , underemployed, and underprivileged women & girls
