COVID-19: Why women deserve more attention — Uwandu-Mordi

Mrs Chioma Uwandu-Mordi (left) a beneficiary (middle) and a resource person, during the four-week free skill acquisition training for women in Akoka/Bariga in 2017.

The Founder of Impact HER Initiative, IHI, a non-governmental organisation, NGO,  Mrs. Chioma Uwandu-Mordi, has said women deserved every empowerment they can get, as they bore the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mrs. Uwandu-Mordi spoke to newsmen, weekend, during a briefing on Impact HER Initiative’s programme, tagged “Gifted Hands During COVID-19”, that will train 50 women in arts and crafts, catering, soap making, make-up, gele tying, ankara and leather works.

Speaking on the six-week skills acquisition programme scheduled to run from September 21 to October 30, Uwandu-Mordi said: “Impact HER Initiative is for the psychological re-orientation of women and girls and its chief concern is to see that women are empowered, developed and financially independent. 

“Given the novel coronavirus pandemic, women deserve all the empowerment they can get. They bore the brunt of the pandemic.”

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Recounting the birth of IHI, she said her childhood experience of hawking with her mother and her siblings to put food on the table, made her pledge to do everything within her powers to ensure women and girls are safe and empowered to maximise their potentials. 

Her words: “This skill acquisition training is one of the organisation’s palliative measures to help cushion the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on indigent women, most of who have been affected tremendously during the lockdown. 

“The Initiative will give start-up capital to the best beneficiaries in all three sections. IHI is also open to donations, sponsorship, collaboration and partnership.”

 She noted that the event, which will hold at Ikotun, Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, is one of many IHI had organised in its four years of existence, empowering over 800 women and girls in different vocational skills. 

The social activist listed the programmes to include: “Female Empowerment and Sustainable Development, 2017, and Becoming that She-Entrepreneur, 2018, both at the University of Lagos; “Others are a four-week skill acquisition training for women in Akoka/Bariga, Lagos; a valentine outreach in 2019 for girls in Surulere tagged ‘Pad A Girl this Val’ and also another pad-a-girl outreach in 2019, in collaboration with Lady Care Sanitary Pads and Hopespring Water Initiative, in commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child.”


Source: Vanguardngr