Provide Skills and Jobs to 425 Disabled in Nigeria

The equipment and tools supplied by National Directorate of Employment and Ministry of Women Affairs were given to graduants in groups to allow for Team work and security of tools. Incedentally MTN Foundation were not ready with what they intend to add to the graduants that time.

Arrangement is on the way to give them tools and equipment by MTNF to support the efforts of others and to give enough for easier work.We could not continue with the idea of Getting shop for them for at least one year due to lack of resources.Because we worked with their Parents and relatives who know what our objectives are, we asked them to procure the shops/convenient places to work in with the tools provided. We are not very comfortable with this and hope to improve on this with the settlement of the present students.

We make frantic efforts to monitor what they do and how it is serving  the purpose of training.

* Six of them are our employees now in Welding, fish farm and tailoring. 

* Sunday Ohagudo from the Eastern Zone of Nigeria got settled last month in a Primary school to teach Sign Language to  Club members of children that hear and speak in addition to sewing their school uniform because he graduated from tailoring section. Learning Sign language  is compulsory in our Centre during training because most of our students are hearing and speech impaired.We have discovered that those in tailoring section who hear and talk and can sign, have double advantageof being settled in school  with sign language and sewing school uniforms.

* Sunday Chidinma Williams graduated  maily from our Education section with minor interst in shoe making and welding. He sat for GCE in December 2011 and made a total of seven Credits including English, Maths and Biology.

He now works with St. John's Ambulance in Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idiaraba Lagos State.He joined FOTD in 2006 from JSS One.

Mr. Wasiu Arioye has settled with a Turkey farm in Offa, Kwara State Nigeria.

We made a promise of involing them in trade and product exhibitions to help them sell thir products monitoring  them is very necessary.

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It was a ray history when 45 disabled youths were graduated from our Centre on July 14th 2011 from welding, Shoe Making and Tailoring and Fashion designs. It was the highest number of students to graduate from the Centre at a time so far. MTN Foundation made this happen by their sponsorship from 2009.

National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and Ministryof Women Affairs Abuja took the pains and responsibility to settle them with equipment and tools in their respective trades.We remain grateful to all our sponsors and Partners

The success of the Partnership between FOTD and MTNF gingered further interest that made MTNF ask for the recruitment of another fifty disabled youths to train in the Core trades for the period of 2011-2013.

Recruitment ,screening and Orientation took place from September to the first week of October when classes began.The staff strength has increased and out of twenty-one staff, FOTD is responsible for the payment and mentanance of seven (7) staff. This is because MTNF cannot do it all for us and we cannot achieve our objectives if the number of trainners needed are not provided. A total of eleven disabled skilled youths are working in th Centre. It serves as our employment medium. We need help now more than ever to sruggle it out and sustain those we employed. The highlight of the period was the AWARD of Recognition and Appreciation of hard work by an Organisation ,SPAN, headed by a person with disability.

In the Fish fariming area, we have succeed in BREEDING our own fingerlings instead of depending on buying from people all the time. We have fifteen Tanks now to manage. 

I've been in Nigeria for the last two weeks, visiting a few partners, but mostly trying to figure out why we don't have more Nigerian partners expressing interest in joining GlobalGiving.  I've been impressed by the great NGO leaders turning up at our workshops, and I was blown away by long-time GlobalGiving partner, Friends of the Disabled.  

Chief Aku Christy Ordu started the organization and grew it slowly over time.  Today, it is a tidy, energetic center of skills training for the disabled, literally under a highway overpass.  In her complex she has a tailoring workshop, a welding workshop, a shoemaking workshop, a fish farm, an urban garden, and a clean water baggie plant.  She and her staff just graduated 50 disabled students from a two-year residential apprenticeship in leatherwork, tailoring, and welding, sponosred by the South African telecom MTN.

An Ashoka fellow, Chief Aku Christy Ordu goes for sytemic change and has successfully implemented sign language clubs in 50 schools to help make hearing imparment less of an obstacle.  She was instrumental in passing Nigeria's first accessibility law for the disabled.  Many of her top staff and most of the individuals employed in the income-generating activities are hearing impaired.  She aims to prove to Nigeria that this issue does not have to be a barrier to having a successful life.

I very much look forward to meeting with Chief Aku on her next visit to the US.  Her work is incredible, and she is ready to expand her fish farm from four to forty tanks!  The total cost is about $20,000, and it will employ 20 people while generating income for ongoing skills training.  

Amazing work!