BY ADEYEMI ROBINSON-ADEFIOYE
Ekiti State,first Lady, ERELU BISI FAYEMI on Monday launched the Women Empowerment Team (WET), designed as a capacity building and empowerment programme for women across the 177 wards in the state.
The scheme will operate through cluster and cooperative groups to be established across all the states.
MRS. FAYEMI said the initiative was proposed to be a “women -helping -women approach through a network of cooperative societies designed to foster peer-learning, knowledge sharing, skills acquisition and socio-economic and risk mitigation interventions for vulnerable women in the state.
She added that the purpose of the initiative, code-named “ObinrinKete”, is to realise as many targets of the Sustainable Development Goals 5 – Gender Equality, thereby leaving no woman behind.
MRS. FAYEMI noted that the vision of the Obinrinkete Cooperative is for Ekiti State to have a future in which all Ekiti Women are prosperous, empowered, productive, and gainfully engaged.
Speaking further, she said the Women Empowerment Team (WET) will be a platform for monitoring initiatives that empower, inform and build the capacity of Ekiti women in general and more importantly women living in poverty.
The First Lady explained that the main aim of WET is to ensure the implementation of her special intervention projects in all the LGAs of the State, with specific objectives in the areas such as Policy Mainstreaming -(monitoring impact of government policies on women); Economic Empowerment through 177 ward cooperatives.
Others are Support for GBV committee at the LGA level, Support for keep Girls in school initiative; Access to primary Health Care at the Community level; Access to Agricultural Opportunities; HIV /AIDS Awareness; COVID-19 Awareness amongst women; Water; and Sanitation and Hygiene programs (WASH).
In attendance at the stakeholders meeting held at the Jibowu Hall of Governor’s office in Ado-Ekiti, had in attendance top government functionaries including the Special Adviser, Communications &Strategy, MRS SOLA SALAKO AJULO, Special Adviser, Development Partnerships/ SDGs, MRS. MAGARET FAGBOYO; Senior Special Assistant on SDGs, MRS. ABIMBOLA SOLANKE, and wives of top government officials.
