Supporting women to earn income from waste upcycling

Women and girls empowerment has been at the core of what I do. From developing and implementing second chance education programme for women and girls who left school because of unintended pregnancies, early marriages, poverty and patriarchal traditional practices to life skills and family life health education programmes for victims of gender-based violence (GBV), WASH projects to improve women and girls access to water and sanitation and climate change adaptation, etc, I have always looked out for how to empower women and girls and help them advance their potentials.

Recently, I started a project to training Gbagyi women in FCT, Nigeria to earn alternative income from waste upcycling with funding from the Global Diversity Foundation's Seed Project Funding. 25 women and a man (who got curious and wanted to learn with the women) have been trained to upcycle scrap bottles into flower vases and interior décor products, old tyres into furniture and other products, cartons into gift bags, revamp of old shows with fabrics etc. It has been a great adventure for the women and they are supper happy with what they have been able to learn and do within a very short period. Over a hundred bottles that should have been trashed into the environment have been creatively converted to beautiful flower vases, over ten old tires transformed into centre tables, chairs, baby seater, flower planter etc and so on. This shows that this project is not only about empowerment of women but it also addresses waste pollution, contributes to environmental sustainability and climate change adaptation. Here is our first publication on this project https://global-diversity.org/2023/06/21/supporting-gbagyi-women-in-nigerias-federal-capital-territory-to-earn-income-from-waste-upcycling-and-business-mentorship/. Thanks to Global Diversity Foundation, UK for supporting this project with seed funding.