A Non-Governmental
Organisation (NGO), Nest of Hope Foundation, has offered training in different skills to 24 female dropouts in Akwa Ibom State, the foundation’s Project Coordinator, Mrs Inyene Raymond, said.
Raymond said this in Uyo while presenting a mid-term review of the foundation’s activities in the past one year.
She said some of the trainees were sexually abused and emotionally traumatised girls who ended up with unwanted pregnancy without completing high schools.
The coordinator, who is also known as Girl Advocate, said that the girls were trained in beads making, makeovers and skincare.
She added that the foundation had screened some girls in Ifiayong Usuk in Uruan Local Government Area on sexually transmitted diseases and also carried out campaign on teenage pregnancy.
She noted that the foundation had also hosted a heart-to-heart talk with school girls on sex education at Methodist Church in Ibesikpo/Asutan Local Government Area.
Raymond explained that the organisation had carried out campaigns on Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) and donated drugs, foods, mattresses and clothes to the VVF Centre at Mbribit Itam, Uyo.
“We protect the rights of the girl-child and speak up for our less-fortunate female children who were abused, raped, sexually harassed and emotionally traumatised.
“We also act like a bridge for total reformation for the abused and disadvantaged youth and girls and give them a sense of belonging,” she said.
She explained that the trainees had also been instructed on how to build a network that could support and provide new connections and opportunities for them.
The Senior Special Assistant to Akwa Ibom Governor on Skill Development, Mr Godwin George, assured the trainees that government would
provide starter packs to enable the trainees to start something.
George said that the state government would monitor them and see how they would progress and even become employers of labour.