Africa Business Communities

[INTERVIEW] ABC sits down with Railu Ladidi Mustapha-Tiamiyu, founder of WOYEN

ABC brings you an exclusive interview with Railu Ladidi Mustapha-Tiamiyu, founder of Women and Youth Empowerment Network, (WOYEN). Ahead of the up-coming event dubbed “Women Building Communities”, Raliu enlightens us on the objectives of WOYEN and its importance to empowering women.

1. Tell us about your organization

 

WOYEN, is a non-governmental organization dedicated to the socio- economic empowerment of women and youth, particularly those of African origin. We do this by providing access to training, workshops and development information.

Overall Goals

1. To provide entrepreneurial and employability skills acquisition opportunities for women and youth.

2. To contribute to the creation of equal economic advancement and development opportunities to women as

well as young people.

3. To ensure women and youth of minority communities, as well as those of African origin have a fair ground of

competition with their counterparts in any part of the world.

Overall Objectives

1. To provide regular quarterly entrepreneurial skills training for at least 50 women and youth from most deprived communities.

2. To increase the chances of youths’ employment by making available quarterly comprehensive employability skills training for 50 young people. This training will include effective communication skills, basic office administration skills, computer literacy, confidence building, CV writing and interview skills.

To organize recreational program for at least 50 women quarterly while using the opportunity to highlight health and wellbeing issues.

4. To provide regular annual exposure to the global market for 20 women through attendance of international trade fairs, trade missions and business networking events and 10 youth through exchange programs.

WOYEN have been working with African women and youth since 2004. It originally operated across West Africa as, Women and Youth Advancement Network, providing entrepreneurship and life skills training for women and young people, including workshops and business networking events.

In 2011, Women and Youth Empowerment Network was established in United Kingdom. We have since then been working with women and youths from African origin and other ethnic minority groups, providing business start-up trainings for stay at home mums, youth skills acquisition workshops, youth leadership training and healthy health awareness campaign within these communities.

Current Programs, Activities and Accomplishment

Internet Training and Online Marketing for Women

WOYEN uses this program to help women, especially stay at home mums, to realise their aspiration of financial independence, while still able to fulfil their obligations as wives and mothers. It provides them with skills in computer and internet use and online marketing training and how to earn money from the internet with Google Adsense and Affiliate Marketing.

WOYEN also provide training for young people between the ages of 13 to 17. Area of focus includes relationships building, use of media, culture, employability, business development/ethics and leadership programs.

We normally organise outreach program at most of our events and give information on health issues such as HIV/AIDS, Female Genital Mutilation and Healthy Heart.About 138 women and youths have been reached out to.

 We offer training in:

Fashion and Design: The course encompasses various elements including designing and cutting clothes, using industrial machinery, embroidery and completing portfolios.

Sewing & Textiles: The training in sewing and textile is designed to teach women how to design and make various garments and accessories such as bags, shoes and hats.

Tie/Dye & Batik: With access to experts in the African hand-designed textile, our women and youth are exposed to innovative, high quality tie/dye and batik design training.

Emerging Into the Global Market

Emerging into the Global Market is one of the major the highlight of our activities. As one of our objectives is to present an opportunity for our women and youth to meet and network with their counterparts in developed communities through trade fairs and trade missions, we therefore, provide trainings, workshops, information, business intelligence, trade and investment opportunities and networking needed to meet these needs.

2. What inspired this event?

As an Educated African woman who is fortunate to have had international exposure as well as the privilege of relating with different categories of women in Africa and having seen just how much women contribute to the family development in my local community, it has always been my aspiration to see women accord their well deserved place in the society as opposed to what we have presently. This passion for women emancipation coupled with the opportunity of meeting with people who shared the same vision for African women is the foundation for the development of this initiative. 

Having said this, another important factor that led to WBC is the gross underdevelopment of the continent, which ironically is very blessed both in terms of human and natural resources. It is a fact that most people in developing African countries almost never get access to basic amenities such as good health care services, clean water, access to good education and other development opportunities.  It is also a fact that most of those elected to represent them at the local, state and national levels are more interested in filling their coffer than using allocated revenues to provide basic services and infrastructures for the people.

While it is true that International organizations and humanitarian agencies, through various projects have tried to intervene, it is unfortunate that these intervention are usually focus mostly on short term emergency aids or if long term, the development programs are built on the basis of grant or contract, which most of the time die a natural death or become complacent once the major funding is taken away. It is therefore obvious that in order to alleviate poverty from African communities and give us a chance for sustainable development, there is a need for an immediate, long-term and sustainable solution to the socio- economic backwardness of our communities.

 

WOYEN propose "Women Building Communities", as an intervention focus on delivering capacity building training for women to develop, design and operate community projects which will be maintained and owned by the community, while at the same time being able to effectively access and seek technical assistance and materials from local and regional non-profit organizations indigenous to their area. - Teaching  our communities how to fish rather than just handing over the fish.

 Why London?

We have strategically chosen to bring these women together in the UK, a developed community with the firm believe that one sure way to inspire and build the aspiration of our  women for a positive change within our communities is to let them see that having a good standard of living is possible for the majority of the people and shouldn't be a dream or privilejus of a few.  WOYEN has chosen London as venue for the WBC program with the intention that this will expose African community women to developed communities, help to motivate and expose them to possibilities and unlock hidden potentials, thereby making it easy for our goal of community building to be achieved.

 

 

3. How do you see about the economic role of women in present-day Africa?

 

It is no gain saying that women are the bedrock of the society, as the cliche? goes, if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation. The influence of the women on decision making at whatever level in the society cannot be over emphasis. Women do not only influence decisions taken within their families, they play a pivotal role in ensuring the success of development projects in their communities. The following quotes lay more credence to this claim which is one of the strong base for the establishment of WBC....

"Until women around the world are accorded their rights and afforded the opportunities of education, health care and gainful employment, global progress and prosperity will have its own glass ceiling." -Hillary Clinton

"In the battle against hunger and poverty, women, especially rural women, most certainly hold up the heavier half." -David A Harcharik, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Also, according to USAID; "Aid programs that provide women opportunities to better their health, education and well-being have effects far beyond a single individual. A woman multiplies the impact of an investment made in her future by extending benefits to the world around her, creating a better life for her family and building a strong community.....

 

If we consider the point raised in these quotes, we will understand just how important women are to the socio-economic development of Africa. In most traditional African communities, women are usually at the core of trading and commerce, for example the concept of "Iya looja" in the " Yoruba" community in Nigeria highlight just how vital is the role of African women in commerce. The "Iya loojas" if translated literarily means  the Mother of Commerce and it's meaning and significance goes way beyond this, these are women chosen in various community market to direct the operation of commerce. This practice and related ones for example has sustained many commercial nerve centre in most Nigerian communities till today and the values of these commercial ventures are quite enormous both in terms of social and economic values.

What is lacking in most African communities is the underestimation of the contribution of our womenfolk to the continent. While we all are taking for granted these activities without doing much to develop them.  In developed communities, it is the development of such communities;  Fabric like local commerce and community project, that come together to place them higher in economy and commerce.

 

4. What are the challenges and how do they translate into the socio-cultural and economic growth of the African continent?

 

The major challenge, we believe is first that of attitudinal change, then development of aspiration and will power to achieve a better society then the acquisition of the necessary skills and tools to do this.  To overcome these challenges, we have adopted the three categorisation of challenges to  community development in Africa aptly described by Ika as structural/contextual problems, institutional/sustainability problems and  managerial/organizational problems. According to Ika, these are "traps in International development project".  In other words, for WBC as an international intervention to achieve its goal, we need to address the issues listed above. It is against this backdrop that the initiative is focused on community project management abilities, organizational skills, shared good practice drives and international networking opportunities required in tackling major problems that results in the failure of community development projects.

WBC is designed to be an International African Women Capacity Building intervention aimed at developing and enhancing the participation of African women in community development projects. It aim to persuade women and organizations in Africa, African women and organizations in Diaspora and women in key positions, to work with community women on projects that will advance the lives of ordinary people within African communities both home and abroad. The program will help to bring about the much needed sustainable development in African communities which is a major tool for poverty alleviation.

 

5. What are the expected outcome after 'Women Building Communities' is over?

Our vision with WBC is to see Community transformation led by inspired and skilled women. This annual international gathering of women will address issues affecting women, youths, development and MDGs and create opportunity for development organizations to meet and network with these women who are tools for change.

We therefore expect that at the end of the 'Women Building Communities' event:

  1.  Participants from at least 50 African communities will be inspired and encouraged to play active roles in community building.
  2. Participants will have understood the basic community development building skills required to start to develop their communities.
  3. Participants will be able to help other women from their communities to also develop these skills with the use of our specially designed "African Community Development Capacity Building" Toolkit.
  4. Each participant will train at least three other women within their community who will in turn train three.

Women Building Communities, WBC is planned to take place annually. This will give WOYEN enough time to follow - up, evaluate the results achieved and make room for improvement.

Our plan for WBC over the next 5 years is to empower and inspire at least 2,250 women across Africa to engage in effective community development initiatives with our "Train Three" strategy.

www.woyen.org/internationalevent

 


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