By Giwa SHILE
A Kaduna-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) — Gender Awareness Trust (GAT) in collaboration with Christian Aid Council distributed N3 million worth of starter packs to 46 adolescent girls in Zonkwa, Kaduna State.
The Executive Director of GAT, Mrs Lydia Umar, said while distributing the packs to the girls on Tuesday at the Igbo Community Town Hall in Zonkwa, Zangon Kataf Local Government, that the gesture was under the Collective for Adolescent Girls’ Initiative (CAAGI) mission.
According to her, the gesture is to empower women in education and commerce, as well as adolescent girls for self-reliance.
Umar congratulated the beneficiaries and asked them to consider themselves privileged, adding that they should reciprocate the gesture, made possible by international donors by contributing positively to their respective communities.
She added that “the gesture will not only change the lives of the recipients but of their families and communities at large.”
Mrs Tida Abba, the Project Coordinator of GAT, said the starter packs would equip the adolescent girls who acquired skills to earn better opportunities for economic empowerment.
Rev. Joseph Hayab, the Coordinator, Faith Actors Dialogue Forum, commended the donors for the gesture which he described at worthy initiative.
Hayab urged the beneficiaries not to sell the packs, instead, they should use it to improve their lives and train others.
Mr Jonathan Ayuba who spoke on behalf of traditional leaders in the area applauded the initiators and urged them to extend the gesture to the male gender.
Mrs Blessings Bitrus who spoke on behalf of the recipients, expressed gratitude to the NGO for the training acquired and assured that the beneficiaries would maximise the potential of the items received.
Beneficiaries were drawn from Zonzon, Ramai and Fadan Kamantan, who received the packs, which included sewing machines, hair-dressing kits, baking materials, bead-making materials and weaving machines.
