The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Global Hope for Women and Children Foundation, GLOHWOC, Mrs Christiana Abayomi-Oluwole, has emphasized the importance of community engagement for organizations embarking on intervention programmes to be able to achieve optimum result.
Abayomi-Oluwole said engaging key stakeholders, community leaders, and the people themselves in intervention projects helps organizations to identify the needs of the community and devise how best to address such issues affecting them.
The women vanguard spoke on Monday at the opening ceremony of a three day Training on Advocacy and Community Engagement for Community Base Organisations. The training was organized by GLOHWOC, with support from Global Affairs Canada and ActionAid.
Abayomi-Oluwole said community engagement will not only help to identify the needs of the people, but also get them involved to own the project and ensure sustenance.
She said, “When community members are able to identify the local resources available to them, it will be very easy for them to identify what external resources and support they need, and once this external support comes in, it will be much more easier for them to utilize the external support, to complement the already existing local resources available in the community.
“Any initiative that is imported into the community cannot stand the test of time, but an initiative that is based on the identifiable needs of the community itself will.
“Once this is done, sustaining such effort won’t be a challenge, you’ll also be sure that ownership of such intervention will not be difficult at all because the initiative has already been bought by the people.”
The GLOHWOC CEO said the three-day training is part of efforts to ensure that the ongoing Women Voice and Leadership Project achieve its mandates, as well as subsequent interventions by the CBOs working across the three senatorial districts of Kwara state on womens right, empowerment and participation in leadership position.
“We don’t want a situation where the communities will see our ongoing project as that of the CBOs, No! We want a situation where the community will see the project as their own,” she said.
Abayomi-Oluwole disclosed that the CBOs will be trained on how to advocate, who to advocate to and at what level. They will also be trained on who to lobby on what issue as well as other community engagement tools.
She further stated that the CBOs, after the three-days capacity building will be more empowered and at an advantage position to engage stakeholders at different levels, all to ensure that women voices are heard and their needs met.
Chairperson WVL Project Committee and retired Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Enterprise, Hajia Halimat Eletu, commended the CBOs for their diligence and urged them to make the training count in the course of their duty.
Another Board member, Dr Peter Odia, applauded the CBOs who were outstanding in their service delivery and charged others to step up their game where they seem to be lagging behind.
The State Coordinator, National Human Right Commission, NHRC, Mrs Olajumoke Olaoye, described GLOHWOC as the number one NGO in Kwara, judging by its impact across the state.
Olaoye, expressed concern over the challenges faced by innocent primary and secondary school girls in terms of sexual abuse and appealed to the CBOs to also channel their effort towards sensitizing these young ones.
She assured of NHRC’s readiness to collaborate with the NGOs to make sure that the rights of individuals are protected.
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