Follow Us on Google
From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Call it a transformational engagement and you are absolutely right. That was the testimony of some commercial sex workers recently rescued from the clutches of the sex trade by a non-governmental organization, Educational Network Against COVID-19 (ENACOVID), recently.
Also benefiting from this corporate magnanimity were widows, orphans and others considered as downtrodden.
With their self-esteem pounded to pulp as the society spat on their plight, they got a lifeline after acquiring sound education and skills, courtesy of the NGO.
They bade farewell to destitution and no longer fear being marginalised and exploited by mainstream society. Rather, they now look forward to earning a decent income through vocational and technical education.
As a registered NGO with the Federal Ministry of Education, ENACOVID is now intervening and collaborating with the ministry and the Social Welfare Department of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the educational sector in training citizens battered by the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking with Daily Sun on the launch of the post-COVID-19 educational response plan, the NGO’s executive director, Dr. Ben Onwudinjo, a philanthropist and retired staff of the Federal Road Safety Corps, said he set up the NGO as a vehicle to offer help, since goodness to mankind has always been his bedrock.
He said: “I saw all these people stranded. Several commercial sex workers, orphans, widows and vulnerable indigent people who were not going to school because of the impact of COVID-19. We cannot just cross our fingers and wait endlessly for help.
“We have to work with relevant agencies and stakeholders to ensure that we help advance the cause of humanity.
“The economic implications of COVID-19 took a toll on them, as many were unable to further their education and as such dropped out of school. So, if you let them be, you are going to have more human nuisance and more problems for society.
“Previously, government agencies used to catch these commercial sex workers, lock them down somewhere and provide them with materials to learn various trades. But many of them sold the materials and returned to the streets, because their real need was education.
“Now, we are training them at no cost to the government and the beneficiaries. The NGO bears the cost and that is why we are appealing to individuals, corporate bodies and faith-based organizations to support us financially and materially.
“We train them in skill acquisition, like tailoring, cosmetology, solar installation, catering, fashion design, driving and ICT.
“We initially wanted to register 500 students but now, we have 3,000 and we cannot turn them back.”
Onwudinjo said the programme was for all groups whose fortunes and possibilities of getting educated might have been adversely impacted by the pandemic.
He equally revealed that the NGO awarded full tuition scholarships to vulnerable women and youths at no cost to the government or the beneficiaries. He added that the programme was expected to last 20 years, with the Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, approving a memorandum of understanding for the educational Network Against COVID-19.
The federal government, he disclosed, screened and released at least 3,000 widows, orphans, ex-commercial sex workers, victims of domestic violence and youth groups to the NGO for training.
He added that, with support from members of the University of Nigeria Alumni Association, Abuja branch, the NGO had trained them in different skills, including catering craft, cosmetology, tailoring, driving/mechanics, computer coding/programming, solar power and CCTV installation, among others.
Onwudinjo noted that the successful ones would write an examination organised by the National Board for Technical Education (NABTEB modular examinations), an agency under the Federal Ministry of Education, by the first quarter of 2023.
“We also prepared them to sit the November/December 2022 West African Examinations Council and NABTEB exams, where we paid their tuition and equally paid their examination fees.
“If you come to the exam centre inside Jabi Primary School, with centre number 5020606, you can see at least a hundred of them writing the exams with joy, while we have almost 2,900 of them waiting to be registered to enable them to write the January/February 2023 WAEC external exams.
“To register the remaining 2,900 candidates for the WAEC 2023 exam, we need public support to the tune of N52,200,000 since WAEC charges N18,000 per candidate.”
Onwudinjo stressed that the programme would be extended to all 36 states at no cost to any of the state governments, since the FCT pilot scheme was a huge success.
