An NGO, Women Environmental Programme (WEP), has distributed working tools to 200 women and youths in four Local Government Areas of Katsina with view to making them self-reliant.
The NGO’s Programme Manager, Ms Nguavese Tracy-Ogbonna, said this at the distribution of the items on Wednesday in Jibia.
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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the beneficiaries were drawn from Jibia, Dutsin-ma, Musawa and Funtua local government areas of the state.
Tracy-Ogbonna said the gesture was aimed at alleviating poverty, making the youths self-reliant, and discouraging them from joining criminals and other violent extremists’ groups.
“We understand that poverty and unemployment are among the drivers of violent extremism; there is also a lack of sense of purpose in some of the young people.
“We selected 200 youths and gave them intensive vocational training on various skills of their choice for six months.
“We are giving them the equipment, in addition, we have rented shops for them to start their businesses.
“By so doing, we expect that they will not be recruited into violent extremism or join violent groups,” she said.
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According to her, 50 beneficiaries, comprising women and youths have been selected from each of the four local governments areas of Jibia, Dutsin-ma, Musawa and Funtua for the programme.
The programme manager revealed that the young people were trained and provided with sets of working kits for computer, tailoring, carpentry and barbing businesses among others.
According to her, the programme, being implemented in partnership with MURNA Foundation was being funded by the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF).
“The overall objective of the programme is to strengthen community resilience against violent extremism in those LGAs,” she said.
In his remarks, the Secretary to Jibia Local Government, who represented the Chairman, Alhaji Muhammad Lawal, thanked WEP for choosing Jibia to be among the four benefiting LGAs.
He, therefore, urged the trainees to make judicious use of tools and step down the training to their younger ones to enable them become self-reliant.
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A cross section of the beneficiaries interviewed, thanked the organisation and pledged to ensure proper use of the items received to become self-sufficient.
Maimuna Bukar, a computer trainee and Alkasim Surajo, barbing, assured their readiness to step down the training to the younger ones for the good of the society.
