From: Sola Ojo, Kaduna
The Theopilus Y. Danjuma Foundation, in collaboration with All Children Charity International Foundation (ACCIF), on Thursday, graduated 61 Hard of Hearing students of Government Technical College, Malali, Kaduna, after 12 weeks of extensive skills training in shoe-making and tailoring.
Twenty-seven of them were trained in shoe-making, while the remaining 34 were trained in tailoring with the help of the College and other collaborating organisations including the Kaduna State Government.
Interim Team Leader ACCIF, Paul Daodu, told newsmen that the need to make people, especially the physically-challenged self-reliant necessitated the skills training.
According to Daodu, “ACCIF in partnership with TY Danjuma Foundation is graduating 61hard of hearing students of Government Technical College, Malali, Kaduna State, North West Nigeria who have successfully completed education and skills training in shoe-making, tailoring and business management in the TY Danjuma Foundation 2017 grant cycle.
“We have 27 who learnt shoe-making and 34 of them learnt tailoring. We have the tools needed for them to start. Everything is costing us about N14million.
“We taught them business aspect of it that is, how to get a place, marketing and management. To get the best out of them, we brought in sign language expert and business experts who took them through rigorous training for 12 weeks and after the graduation, our monitoring committee will follow up to ensure that they are doing well. We also put this centre in place here within the school to ensure continuity”.
According to him, “the aim is to institutionalizing this project across Kaduna State and giving back to society. We don’t want to run a charity that will just be giving people fish, but we want to teach people how to fish by themselves. We want to leave a legacy where people, especially, those that are physically challenged, can move on whether their is economic recession or not.
“We want Kaduna State government to adopt this across the 23 local government areas of the state to give this category of member of the society a sense of livelihood and belonging.
“The major setback for us was when we lost project director and founder of ACCIF, Barrister Ranti Bosede Daodu. Thank God she left this platform behind and this is like a tribute to her”, he added.