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• ANI manager David Peter addressing participants
A non-governmental organisation called the Africa Nature Investors Foundation has empowered 1,500 women in agribusiness and trained another batch of 3000 all from Toungo Local Government Area in Adamawa State.
While speaking with Arewa PUNCH exclusively on Wednesday in Yola during one of the training sessions, the Country Manager of ANI Mr. Nadia Geoffrey said that the empowerment of women in national parks communities is a way of protecting the parks from poaching.
He noted that the training and empowerment of women and men aims at providing them with other sources of income that can guarantee the safety of parks.
“Managing parks is not about employing people to carry arms to protect the park, empowering the community members, by investing in them, so that they see the benefits of the parks and protect it in their interest, “ he said.
Geoffrey pointed out that the essence of working with the communities in the parks is to make the parks a magnate of development in the area so that the community becomes better off due to his foundation’s intervention.
“We support the agriculture livestock sector and other livelihoods activities that are involved in it,” he stated.
He added, “we currently supported over 1500 women through the savings and loans groups in the Gashaka and Gumti national parks in Adamawa and Taraba states parks.”
Geoffrey who further disclosed that his foundation has a 30-year MOU with the Federal Government to manage the Okumu Park in Edo State, the Gashaka Park in Taraba State and the Gumti Park in Adamawa State, pointed out that his foundation is working with the Nuru Nigeria which is targeting over 3000 beneficiaries in the different agribusiness sectors.
In an interview with our correspondent during the training, the Managing Director of Nuru Nigeria, Mrs. Amy Gaman revealed that her organisation’s main objective is to build resilience and how to mitigate shocks in women during crisis.
“Globally, the shocks that we are facing now is the issue of climate change, so we need to develop community resilience for climate change, before we do that we need to understand what is the vision of the community and their current practices, “ she stressed.
Gaman added, “Identifying the gaps is very important, the gaps in knowledge, resource gaps, so that we can design a programme that can be benefiting to them.”
She pointed out that food security without nutrition is not enough for Nigerians to enjoy what they are producing, noting that nutrition plays important roles in human development.
The managing director insisted that high breeds okro, cucumber, and tomato seedlings, and some financial support have been given to over 1500 women to start their agribusiness.
She emphasised that with the recent Federal Government’s declaration of state of emergency on food security, her organisation became vision partners with the Federal Government.
“When farmers have alternative livelihood, there will be no encroachment on the parks,” she said.
Aslo speaking to the participants during the training, the ANI manager Mr. David Peter highlighted the main objectives of the workshop to include the development of solutions that are not only innovative but also sustainable and grounded in the needs and realities of the community.
He added that the training is to encourage diverse perspectives to stimulate innovative ideas and creative solutions and strengthen the capacity of participants by involving them in problems solving processes, thereby fostering a sense of empowerment.
