The National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) says it will introduce vocational skills training in internally displaced persons’ camps in FCT by Sept. 8.

The Director-General of the Centre, Ms. Onyeka Onwenu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday that the training was part of long term solutions to the problems faced by IDPs.

“On the 8th of September, we are actually taking our programme to the IDP camps; we are starting with the ones in Abuja.

“We have reasons that yes it is ok and it is well a desired thing that we should take relief materials to the IDPs and the refugees.

“They need those materials now now now, but whilst we are doing that, it’s very important that we are thinking on the long term solution.

“As an agency what we do here stands on three pillars: advocacy, training and empowerment; there are others, but I focus on these three.

“And if you take that training, our experience has thought us that when you train a woman to be able to help herself, you’ve trained a family and you’ve trained a community.

“And we are saying that the IDPs even in the situation of the camps where they are, if we are able to train them and give them a skill that they can put to immediate use, they are not just gathering the relief materials today and hoping on the one that will come tomorrow which may come or which may not come, but they are actually able to help themselves and help their families.

“So what we are doing with them is not just to train them but to give them a little something as well so that they can actually start their businesses.

“The IDPs will need clothes, they will need food, you can make exercise books for the children that are going to school - there are so many things and this is often why we argue that opportunities abound in Nigeria, forget about the white collar jobs.”

According to the director-general the centre plans to offer scholarships to the trainees, who develop interest in particular skills in the course of the training.

She added that the centre would offer psycho-social support to the IDPs to help rebuild their self-confidence and assist in the process of their reintegration into the society.

Onwenu told NAN that the centre was working closely with development partners to ensure that the programme was sustained and to ensure that it reached the grassroots.

She also told NAN that the training was part of activities lined up by the centre to commemorate the International Day of Women and Girls at a summit that would hold on Oct. 15.

According to her, the theme of the Day will be ‘Empowerment and Training: Innovation for the Girl-Child.’

She said that the summit would streamline economic empowerment programmes for internally displaced women and girls. (NAN)

•Photo shows IDPs

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