NGO trains 45 women artisan miners on alternative livelihoods in Nasarawa
Women’s Right to Education Programme (WREP), an NGO in Nasarawa State, trained 45 female small-scale artisan miners on alternative occupations on Wednesday.
Mrs Violet Ocheikwu, the NGO’s Deputy Executive Director, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) immediately after the one-day exercise in Lafia that the training was designed to help women and their families cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ocheikwu explained that the exercise was a World Bank project with specific focus on small scale artisan miners in the state.
She said that 15 participants each were selected from three communities of Doma in Doma Local Government Area, Alizaga and Bashiri in Nasarawa-Eggon Local Government Area to benefit from the training.
“The programme was birthed as a result of the impact of COVID-19 on women in artisanal and small scale mining.
“So we thought that if women learn other skills, they will be able to fend for their families because we know that COVID-19 affected people that earn daily living especially women,” she said.
She said that the women were trained in the production of liquid soap, detergents and hand sanitizers, as well as menstrual hygiene management and how to produce reusable sanitary towels.
“That of reusable sanitary towels is because from their local communities, it is really hard to afford it. People are looking for money to eat, how much more buying sanitary towels.
“So once they are able to produce reusable ones, they can even sell them and make life easier,” she said.
Ocheikwu said the participants were expected to take home what they produced during the training and sell them to make profit and invest back in their businesses.
“They are going home with the product they are producing right now and we encourage them to sell it, raise money to continue the business which I am sure most of them would love to,” she added.
Mrs Teni Ogga, a participant from Doma, lauded the organisers of the training as it would enable most of them produce the item for their personal use and even sell to make profit.
“Most of us buy these products very expensively but now that we have learnt how to do it, we can go directly to the sellers of the raw chemicals and produce our own,” she said.
