Ene Oshaba
Brainy Age Initiative, a women and girls based Non Governmental Organization (NGO) has empowered 60 women at the new Kuchingoro Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) camp with cash and food items to enable them celebrate the yuletide season.
The organization had also trained 35 women and girls at the camp on different skills such as baking, make up , tailoring and enlightenment on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and healthcare to enable them make some money to cater for themselves and children.
The founder, Henrietha Agboje, during the outreach to the camp in Abuja at the weekend, expressed worry at the harsh living conditions of the women, stressing the need for more support to the less privileged in the zo enable a more peaceful society.
According to her, the Women needed help especially because they are displaced and have been abandoned, calling on government and well meaning Nigerians to support them live a more meaningful life.
“We brought food items and also gave them cash, and we are calling on all to come and assist these women because there is serious poverty in the land and the only way to defeat poverty is for all hands to be on deck in providing support and necessary assistance.
“We also focused this outreach on the advocacy against gender based violence to let them know what to do in such situations. We had enlightenment programme on family planning also so they won’t keep giving birth to kids they cannot cater to,” she said.
The Founder called on government to pay attention to the health needs of IDP’s especially the women , who most times cannot afford hospital bills and live with life threatening health challenges.
“A lot of them have blood pressure issues , and we use this opportunity to call on government to provide help to these women because so many of them cannot afford medical care and end up losing their lives,” she noted.
A Medical Professional Dr. Chita Ogonna, who volunteerd to join the organization on the outreach said though a good number of the Women are healthy, they needed more understanding on family planning methods to enable them stop giving birth frequently.
“I enlightened them about family planning , how many concentraceptive available and how they can get it because many of them don’t have information on their sexual and reproductive healthcare and so they keep giving birth every year.
“Their general health condition is good except for a few with high sugar level Lots of the Women are receptive to family planning but for their husbands so we also enlightened them on how to make their husbands understand the need for family planning. ,” she said.
Meanwhile, BusyBee Consult and Board Member of Brainyage Siya Nwator, stressed the need for government to review system, culture and constitutional to capture the needs of women, adding that women are undeserved in almost all spheres of life”We need to figure out a balance because there are many things women are undeserved but when women are served adequately, men and children will be better I’m the society.
“This is annual give back and this year we focused on advocacy against GBV. Nigeria is not an easy place to live in for everybody so its not easy for displaced women to live with practically nothing, it is important to pay attention to women because if you do so you are taking care of the nation,” she said.
Women leader at the IDP camp Ladi Mathias, seek for medical support from the government, lamenting that many pregnant women die during childbirth due to lack of finances to go to the hospital.
“We don’t have money to go to hospital and many women have died during childbirth. We are pleading with government to support us with healthcare to enable pregnant women give birth successfully. Also for kids to stop dying from malaria and fever,” she said.