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From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
The Maria Touch of Care Foundation (MTC Foundation), has marked the 2026 International Women’s Day with Yelewata women at the International Market IDP Camp, Makurdi.
The event, organised under the dual themes of “Give to Gain” the widely observed IWD 2026 theme and “Rights, Justice, Action, For All Women and Girls,” brought
together over 160 participants including 105 women residents in the camp, 50 men and 5 camp officials.
The Director MTC Foundation, Grace Tyowua said the event was a deliberate effort to extend IWD visibility to women in displacement, a group the organisation noted is frequently absent from
mainstream celebrations despite facing some of the most acute challenges to women’s rights and dignity.
Central to the event was the screening of a short documentary film co-created with IDP women at the camp. The film features IDP women speaking in their own voices about life in displacement, resilience, rights, and what genuine investment in women looks like from the inside.
She said the film was an act of visibility placing the faces and voices of displaced women before a wider audience on a day
when such women are rarely seen.
Th Director said “International Women’s Day should not pass without these women being seen. This film was co-created with them, not about them. Their voices, their faces, their words, that is the action this day demands.”
The event also featured a drama illustration performed by community members, which depicted the consequences of investing in a male child while excluding female children from education and opportunity. The performance, rooted in a local
metaphor involving a three-stone cooking fire, drew a strong response from the audience and reinforced the event’s core message, that when any member of a family or community is excluded from investment, the whole structure becomes unstable.
Attendees were invited to sign a Give to Gain Commitment Board, on which both men and women pledged to support women in displacement and to invest in women and girls in their communities.
As a direct expression of the Give to Gain theme, MTC Foundation
trained 30 women from households within the camp in soap making as part of a skills acquisition initiative and an investment in the economic rights and agency of displaced women, to equip them with practical income-generating skills and starter kits to kickstart the
business.
She noted that “Rights and justice for women cannot remain words. They have to become action and for us, action means putting skills, resources, and opportunity directly in the hands of women who have been displaced from everything familiar.
Founder, Maria Touch of Care Foundation, Maria Onah, called on the public to watch and share the
film as an act of solidarity with women in displacement, noting that visibility and affirmation are themselves forms of support that carry no financial cost.
Maria Touch of Care Foundation Maria Touch of Care Foundation (MTC Foundation) is a women-led community based organization working to improve the lives of vulnerable populations, with a focus on women, children, and displaced communities.
