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From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
A Kaduna-based women-focused NGO,Women Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE), says it has impacted over 120,000 women across Nigeria on sustainable environmental practices.
This is done by deliberately promoting constructive environmental ideals and practices through empowering women to become stewards of natural resources and climate actors and peacebuilders.
Founder and Executive Director of WISE, Mrs. Olanike Olugboji-Daramola, who stated this on the sideline of activity to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day in Kaduna added that her organisation since its inception in 2004, has majored in water sanitation and hygiene, food security and access to clean cooking energy.
Highlighting some of the inherent dangers associated with cooking with firewood and other unclean energy sources, she noted that over the years, a lot of women were unconsciously exposed to hazards from their traditional methods of cooking.
She said, “one of the reports that caught our attention was the World Health Organisation’s reports which said Nigeria tops the list of countries where women were dying annually from smoke-related illnesses”.
She further noted that it was against such backgrounds her organisation has been championing courses that can take the women out of such hazards, or, at least, reduce them over the years through best practice campaigns.
“Over the years, women’s voices have been missing from the decision-making tables due to several reasons. However, their ability to take action either by creating their spaces to make changes or becoming authors of their expected change.
“Women should stop emphasising they are being marginalised, that is an expired message. We are authors of our change and if we are not called to the decision-making tables, then we must create our table.
“We believe that the more informed women get, the more equipped they are
financially and in terms of skills, the better the society will be.
“The call for women’s empowerment is therefore not a contest between men and women, but a call for partnership, a call for a society where everybody’s voice counts, where we know that we all need one another.
“By inspiring understanding and appreciation for investment in women and women’s inclusion, we contribute to creating a better world.
“Our programmes include but are not limited to women’s clean cooking training and entrepreneurship project, financial literacy, green micro-financing project, bridge, and bank climate-smart farming project or the tree growing enterprise for food security and climate resilience project among others”, she said.
The WISE-IWD celebration featured competitions, raffle draws, fashion parade, among others, and it was supported by Twisco, Atmosfair, Micromanna, Fati Gold, NSIA, and WOWIN, among others.
