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Forty women have been formally oriented and onboarded into a livelihood support programme designed to move ultra poor households from financial vulnerability to stable, sustainable incomes in Makurdi Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue state.
The event, held at in Makurdi, was organised under “Bridging the Gaps in Women’s Health and Wellbeing” project.
It was gathered that the project is implemented by the Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Preservation (GIFSEP) and funded by the Hauwa Ojeifo Global Impact Fund for Women and Girls with technical support from CBM Global Nigeria.
The project manager, Dorcas Nicanor, presented an overview of the project, including participants’ roles, responsibilities and expectations.
She also stressed participants’ rights, including the right to dignity, non-discrimination, confidentiality and access to information.
Nicanor explained that the orientation marked the first direct engagement between the selected participants and the project team and was aimed at building trust and ensuring every woman understood what the programme offers and what it expects.
According to her, participants were introduced to the project’s objectives, implementation locations and timeline, as well as the graduation approach, a structured model of phased support that helps beneficiaries build economic stability and grow their livelihoods.
Explaining the model, the Executive Director of GIFSEP, Dr. Michael David, said conditional cash transfers of N20,000 would be provided to each participant for six months as a social protection measure to stabilize household consumption, ease immediate financial stress and sustain livelihood activities.
A dedicated session on safeguarding and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention was led by Dr. Beatrice Onoja.
Participants were sensitised on forms of GBV, including physical, emotional, economic and technology-facilitated abuse, and encouraged to memorise emergency contact numbers, support one another and use the project’s feedback and safeguarding reporting channels to raise concerns.
Blueprint.ng reports that question-and-answer session during the activity produced a notable outcome as some participants changed the livelihood options they had chosen during the earlier verification process after gaining clearer understanding of the Graduation Approach.
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