From ABUBAKAR M ABBA Gombe
A total number of 400 women have graduated from the Gombe Governor’s wife’s pet-project (HAWEP) Hajiya Adama Women Empowerment Programme in Gombe.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, the Coordinator of the programme who is also the Special Assistant on Special Duties, Alhaji Hassan Adamu said that, the graduation ceremony witnessed was the third batch in the series of the programme which started in April 2011.
She added that the 400 trained women,drawn from all the Eleven local government areas, under went training in Five different skills they are Fish farming, Tailoring, Hair dressing, Knitting, Soap and Jelly making for a period of Eight weeks, in various training centers in the state.
The Coordinator said , all the 400 women trainees were given 1,000 naira each every week during the training as transport fare to and from home as motivation having realized that, most of the trainees were from the less privileged background.
At the end of the training during graduation, all the trainees, will received working materials based on what each trained, for Tailoring, a Sewing machine, Wrapper, Pressing Iron and a Scissors to be given, so also in Hair dressing, Fish farming, Soap Making, Jelly making and Knitting and a start-up capital of N50,000 respectively.
In her speech, the state First Lady Hajiya Adama Dankwambo, said that the programme was designed specifically to assist women folk especially the less privileged and vulnerable in the society to be self reliance and support their families.
Hajiya Adama stated that, she initiated Women Empowerment Programme (HAWEP) with a view to eradicating poverty among women in all the eleven local government of the state and to encourage women to establish sustainable income generation venture for the improvement of their lives.
She added that, at the end December, another batch of 500 trainees will graduate making a total number of 1,524 women that have so far been empowered under HAWEP in Gombe state since April 2011.
Adding that the programme will strive to train another set of women 2,500 in the next fiscal year 2013, calling on women to be patient as those wanting to benefit will be admitted.
Some beneficiaries like A’ishatu Inuwa ,Fatsuma Alhaji Aminu and Fatimah Gimba all expressed their gratitude to the Governor’s wife for bringing happiness in to their lives as the training they received will go along way in bettering their lives and that of their families.