The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is collaborating with a gender advocacy group, StandUp for Women Society (SWS), to bring succour to teenage mothers in Bayelsa State.
The Tide’s source reports that 20 teenage mothers who dropped out of schools in Bayelsa have been re-enrolled for education and vocational skills acquisition training programmes.
The NCDMB-funded initiative, implemented by SWS, is in conjunction with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Legal Aid Community Development Service group.
Deputy Manager, Capacity Building, NCDMB, Mr. Timbiri Augustine, said the teenagers, selected from rural communities within Yenagoa Local Government Area, would undergo training in fashion design, catering, facial make-up, and hairdressing for three months at the Bayelsa Institute of Tourism and Hospitality, Yenagoa.
He disclosed this while speaking during the inauguration, on Wednesday, at the Institute.
According to him, the Board attached so much importance to training and human capital development, hence the support for the training.
Augustine, who commended the stakeholders for initiating the training, stressed its importance to the development of young women, adding that this was the first time the category of persons would be captured by the Board for skills acquisition training.
“We have noted that employment is limited, but there is the entrepreneurship window that is open for all of us; there are only two ways to generate income: either as a service provider or producer or both.
“This trainings will expose you to skills to become a service provider and a producer.
“We expect maximum commitment, you have a role to play; we are playing our own role, the trainers are expected to play their own role, and you are also expected to play your own role and remain committed and align with our expectations”, he charged them.
He thanked the stakeholders involved in the training, saying that NCDMB knew the importance of partnership and collaboration as a key priority.
The Rector, Institute of Tourism and Hospitality, Prof. Apuega Arikawie, commended the NCDMB for utilising the facilities offered by the Institute for its different trainings and financing different programmes in the Niger Delta and country at large.
He said the NCDMB thought it wise to sponsor the programme to empower teenage girls to take care of their children and make them entrepreneurs, reduce criminality, poverty and other anti social vices bedeviling the Niger Delta.
In her speech, the Chairperson of SWS, Bayelsa Chapter, Ms Eunice Nnachi, said the training programme aims to achieve social integration and give hope to teenage mothers who found themselves in the role of parenting at a tender age.
Nnachi explained that the trainees would be given stipends and starter packs to enable them to become self-reliant.
She noted that more than 100 teenage mothers had been captured and would undergo the skills acquisition training to be carried out in different phases.
According to her, arrangements have been put in place to ensure that the programme was well monitored and supervised for optimal impact on the beneficiaries.