No fewer than 700 women, widows and youths have benefited from a skills acquisition training programme in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
The training, organised by Supreme Family Entertainment International Initiative (SFEII), an NGO, had participants drawn from four districts of the local government.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the participants were trained in crafts such as soap making, facial make-up, shoe making, barbing and vaseline making, among others.
At the graduation ceremony in Yarbung community, the founder of SFEII, Mrs Joyce Hemni, said the gesture was aimed at empowering the trainees to be self-reliant.
She said: ”The current economic realities in the country meant that people must equip themselves with skills to complement life and put food on the table.
”When the youth are engaged in productive ventures, it helps to keep them off drugs and other social vices.
“This exercise is borne out of my love for humanity, coupled with the need to empower these women and youths to be self-reliant.
“When you look around, you would see our youths sitting idle, doing nothing to help themselves.”
Yarbung said that government alone could not employ everybody.
The Chairman of the NGO, Mr Patrick Hemni, said there was no better investment in life than that in human beings.
Also, the Acting Chief of Kachia, Mr Jacob Dogo, commended the NGO for its selfless efforts at empowering women and youths in the area.
Dogo stated that the training would reduce criminal activities amongst the youth..
He appealed to other well meaning individuals and organisations to emulate SFEII in empowering the downtrodden.
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke with NAN expressed gratitude to the NGO, promising to make use of what they had learnt to build themselves.
NAN reports that starter packs were given to all the beneficiaries, as well as money to those who distinguished themselves during the training.
NAN
