By Olaoye Ademola|
When over 9000 girls dropped out of school across the country due to financial incapability, it never crossed their minds that succour could come their way in form of sponsored education and free vocational training.
That was exactly their lot through the Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprises (ENGINE), an empowerment project designed by MercyCorps Nigeria for school drop-outs, as well as marginalized and indigent girls. Many of them were at the ENGINE Project Evidence-Based Learning workshop held in Lagos on Tuesday.
The workshop was to assess the journey so far for the girls and appreciate the volunteered trainers while rounding off the phase one of the project.
Hundreds of beneficiaries, who now have their regular source of incomes through the ENGINE’s free vocational trainings and sponsored formal education, spoke glowingly of their bailout from street-roaming to shop-owners experience.
The coordinators said, 2,053 girls were trained in vocational skills like bead making, catering, commercial make-over, Gele tying and tie & dye among others in Bariga, Somolu, Kosofe, Ojo, Epe and Alimosho areas of Lagos. The girls also learnt business, leadership, and financial management skills. Others were sent back to school for formal education.
The ENGINE Program Manager, Shweta Shah said that community leaders too were involved.
He said, “We identified centres for the trainings, trained community members to serve as coordinators and mentors, and enrolled 9, 125 disadvantaged out-of-school girls into the programme, receiving academic tutoring, as well as employment readiness skills, including financial education, business education, and life and leadership skills.”
Based on interactions with some of them, some of the girls are already into petty trading and the financial education class really helped them to discover what their strengths are and how to use these strengths to make money wisely.
Acting Program Coordinator, Margaritta Omojola, said the “ENGINE programme is directed at improving the learning outcomes and economic status of 18,000 disadvantaged out-of-school adolescent girls between the ages of 16 and 19 years in Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Nigeria. The programme is sponsored by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development’s Girls’ Education Challenge, GEC and the Coca-Cola Company”.
Abiose Haruna added that some ENGINE activities were aimed at ensuring that marginalised in-school girls improved their learning outcomes in a supportive environment by participating in weekly Safe Space activities over a nine-month period to receive academic tutoring, as well as employment readiness skills, including financial education and leadership skills.
“It increases girls’ economic assets and their influence on household decision making through access to education, increased learning, and direct linkages to economic activities,” she said.
Elizabeth Adeniyi, one of the beneficiaries of the ENGINE program in Lagos, who has been able to grow her small scale business from two crates of Coca-Cola soft drinks to 64 crates, will be featuring in MercyCorps worldwide video shooting. This is to reward her for doing so well.
Appreciating Mercy Corps and other stakeholders, for the proposed face of ENGINE role, Elizabeth said, “I am full of appreciation to Mercy Corps, Action Health Incorporated, UKaid, ENGINE and Coca-Cola for giving me the opportunity of starting a business. It gives me joy looking back at where I was coming from. They have really done so many great things in my life likewise many other girls.”