No fewer than 30 victims of human trafficking were trained and empowered by Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Agency (PRAWA) in Kano to make them self-reliant and productive to the society.
Speaking to reporters during the closing ceremony of the three-month Skills Acquisition programme sponsored by PRAWA in collaboration with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP), Acting Executive Director of PRAWA, Barr. Yinka Lawal, said plans have been made to provide the beneficiaries with sewing machines and other vital equipment they need to start up their businesses.
According to him, N300, 000 has already been made available for the 30 beneficiaries of the training programmes to access through revolving soft loan scheme.
According to Lawal, “We have N300,000 for the take-off, comprising the entire group. However, the novel thing is that we are not giving them money, as they are required to identify what they need and where they want to be, so we support them to set up.”
He said PRAWA is working with National Agency for Trafficking of Human Persons (NAPTIP) and the Women Vocational Centre to monitor the programme across the five states.
He added that PRAWA has also met with the grassroots micro finance banks, as part of the plan to open an account for the beneficiaries.
Barr. Lawal added that his organisation cannot yet determine the cost, since it is spanning over three years. He also said enlightenment started in the communities, secondary schools and higher institutions.
“In the pool of these 30 beneficiaries, we have about three different major vocations. Over 20 of them learnt Fashion and Design over a period of three months while one of them learnt Interior Decoration. Another two learnt Catering Services.”
He added that they have also been given entrepreneurship training to run their businesses.
“Importantly also, the model we adopted for the empowerment is a Revolving Credit Scheme and that necessitated the need for a self-help group. So, what that means is that many of them are taking off, especially those that learnt Fashion and Designing.”He concluded.
Source: The Nation
