Saving Women from Poverty

With a population of 1 million over 74% women, and with an unemployment rate standing at 60% poverty, especially in rural area has been described by economic planners and leading social commentators as a ticking time bomb which remaining uncritically addressed might lead to a serious disruption of the socio-economic life of the country in the very near future. Nearly 60% in the country’s 10 million people are poor, or unable to meet their daily nutritional requirements. The vast majority of poor people live in urban areas. The majority of the poor are to be found among smallholder farmers herders, farm laborers, unskilled and semi-skilled workers, households headed by women, people with disabilities and AIDS orphans.

Poverty among these groups is attributable to several factors: High population growth, lack of access to formal education and training, climate changes, tribal affinities with consequent social tensions, the effects of HIV/AIDS, outdated farming methods, lack of appropriate market information, lack of credit, and cultural practices leading to social challenges like, environmental degradation, malnutrition, poor water management, soil erosion, declining soil fertility and land, high crime rate, ethnic conflicts over scarce resources all of which recycle communities, especially rural poor young women into more poverty.

Despite recent improvements in the health, education, rural infrastructural development and power supply to reduce marginalization of these groups in national economic agenda, the issues of extreme income and social inequality and social exclusion remain at the root of rural poverty. These frightening statistics are even dire in rural and urban areas in my country Nigeria. Because of this background, the majority of women and girls do not have proper or sometimes any business management skills which puts them at the lower end of national/county economy. Lack of modern business information, including scant awareness of the possibilities present in ICT/Entrepreneur skills place the young uneducated woman  in abject poverty which will be passed on her children to create endless cycles of poverty, disease, low life expectancy, early unplanned pregnancies and the inevitable high incidences of unemployed among households in the district.

Introduction of vocational skills are now introduced by our organisation  to alleviate these poverty.