An NGO, the African Centre for Human Advancement Social and Community Development (ACHASCOD) donated food items to vulnerable women in Shere community, Abuja, on Sunday to mark the 2024 International Women’s Day.
Executive Director of the NGO, Amb. Opeyemi Aderinto, said the gesture was designed to put smiles on the faces of the needy.
She called for investment, support and empowerment of women, saying such investments would result in the collective well-being and prosperity of the society at large.
“To make women’s lives better, they need empowerment; not just in provision of food, but also in job provision.
“Governments should remember that there are people in this community who need their support and empowerment and they should come to the community to assist.
“Statistics paint a sobering picture of women’s health worldwide.
“According to the World Health Organisation, women face unique health challenges, including higher rates of non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular ailments, cancers, and mental health disorders.
“Maternal mortality also remains a pressing issue, with disparities starkly evident across regions.
“These statistics underscore the urgency of targeted interventions to safeguard women’s well-being,’’ she said.
Aderinto noted that empowering women to prioritise their health fostered resilience, strengthened families, and drove sustainable growth, stressing that investing in women’s health is the cornerstone of a bright future.
In his remarks, a member of the Board of Trustees of the NGO, Oba Olasunkanmi John, called for investments in rural health for the benefit of rural dwellers.
Sensitising beneficiaries of the food distribution, John charged the women to take proper care of their health and ensure they lived in hygienic environments.
He also urged governments to factor in the interests of women, particularly the vulnerable ones when planning for poverty eradication.
“One of the objectives of ACHASCOD is the empowerment of women, particularly those in rural communities.
“Government can invest in rural women by investing in rural healthcare centres; by providing quality pipe-borne water, electricity and good roads.
“Women are the ones who go to fetch water from distances and they waste a lot of man-hour in the process.
“Government should provide pipe-borne water in rural areas so that women of communities like Shere will have access to potable water instead of fetching same from unhealthy sources,’’ he said.
Appreciating the gesture, a community leader in Shere, Malam Bala Ahmed, appealed for increased support in terms of empowerment and skills acquisition particularly for widows so they could become self-reliant.
“Our roads here are bad and we suffer a lot, particularly during the rains. The bridge we have here was constructed through communal efforts to ease the stress on our people.
“We do not have potable water and electricity. We have transformer that was brought here about 10 years ago and nobody has turned up to fix it for us,’’ he said.
A community member, Hajia Jedidiah Ibrahim, canvassed for job creation for youths of the community who had gone through one form of formal education or the other, but were jobless.
She said also that empowering women to become self-reliant would assist the community to contribute to national development. (NAN)