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Category: LRP

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COMMEMORATION OF CHILDREN’S DAY AT AMEKE, IHENYI, AND OROKORO COMMUNITIES

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” – Frederick Douglass. 

Children’s Day is recognized worldwide as a day dedicated to fostering cooperative exchange and understanding among children and taking actionable steps to promote their welfare globally. It’s an annual event that allows children to express themselves and experience happiness during their formative years. 

South Saharan Social Development Organization, in partnership with ActionAid Nigeria, commemorated this year’s event, themed “Celebrating Creativity – The Power of Imagination” with community outreaches to Ihenyi and Orokoro communities in Isi-Uzo LGA and Ameke community in Aninri LGA. Stakeholders present include the LGA representative, President-General. Youth community leaders, parents, and teachers.

The children were educated about their rights and encouraged to report any incidents of abuse. Parents were urged to remain vigilant, especially when children exhibit signs of withdrawal or complain about abuse-related issues. The LRP program officer educated the children and parents on the importance of practising good hygiene behaviours and spoke about good environmental hygiene. The children participated in a marching parade, quiz competition, sack race, dance competition and a cultural display.  

The team also used the medium to sensitize parents and children on the importance of keeping a clean environment in line with World Environment Day. In a participatory approach, participants identified environmental issues affecting the community. Everyone vowed to keep their environment clean and desist from open defecation, littering, and indiscriminate waste disposal.  

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Empowering the Child Through Child Sponsorship Mechanism

Research shows that over 90 million Nigerians live below the poverty line. A good percentage live in rural and marginalized communities. These communities are characterized by poor access to healthcare and education, lack of infrastructure, and low-income level. This affects their standard of living and quality of life, of which kids are the biggest victims.

Understanding this reality, South Saharan Social Development Organization, in partnership with ActionAid Nigeria through the Local Rights Programme, is doing its part to improve education in marginalized communities.

The program aims to reduce poverty by increasing its engagement with the poor and marginalized in selected communities through its Child Sponsorship mechanisms. The child sponsorship initiative identifies vulnerable children aged 3 to 8 years and attaches them to sponsors.

Over the past collection period, the team collected 403 child messages across eight communities (Ihenyi, Amagu, Ameke, Oduma Achara, Abor Isiala, Orokoro, Igga, Nkume). Our motivation is to see the children and the communities at large be all that they can be.

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SSDO, ActionAid Commemorates International Women’s Day 2023

International Women’s Day is a global day to celebrate women’s socioeconomic, cultural, and political achievements. It is also a unique opportunity for women to rally and advocate for equal treatment and representation.

South Saharan Social Development Organization, in partnership with ActionAid Nigeria, commemorated International Women’s Day through a radio sensitization and advocacy engagement. The topic of discussion was DigitAll: Innovation and technology for gender equality.

The guests on the show were: Barr. Nkem Awachie – Digital Entrepreneur and Women’s Right Activist. Mrs. Blessing Uchendu – SSDO Gender and Protection Lead, and Ms. Priye West – Program Lead Local Rights Programme.

The radio show sensitized women and girls on leveraging digital technology to gather and preserve evidence in gender abuse cases. As well as educating women on using digital tools and the internet to improve their socioeconomic status. 

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SSDO, ActionAid Nigeria Organizes Election Observer Training in Enugu State

South Saharan Social Development Organization, SSDO, participated in the 2-day training of election observers organized by ActionAid Nigeria in Enugu to build the team’s capacity and empower them with the needed skill and knowledge to observe the upcoming general elections effectively.

The aim of the training is to empower election observers to take democratic actions in the general elections and improve citizens’ election observation capacity towards promoting good governance.

The training covered details of the electoral amendment bill, electoral guidelines, Nigeria’s political economy, observers checklist sections, election observation toolkit, and how to use the ‘i-observer’ app developed by ActionAid for the election observation.

After the training, SSDO organized a 2-day step-down training for election observers in the three communities where the Local Rights Programme, LRP, is being implemented in Enugu state. Udochukwu Egwim, Head of Programs, Priye West, LRP Officer, and Perpetual Njoku, Child Sponsorship Officer, facilitated the training.

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Women’s Peer Education Training

Through years of working on projects at the community level, we realize that women and girls are hugely disadvantaged. They have often been marginalized and segregated to the background on so many fronts in society.

One of the primary reasons for marginalization is the inequality between men and women in accessing and controlling resources.

And as such South Saharan Social Development Organization, in partnership with ActionAid Nigeria, seeks to foster women’s empowerment through peer education. This initiative aims to advocate for women’s rights and bridge women’s capacity deficiency at the community level.

The program was facilitated by the Project’s Lead, Perpetual Njoku, SSDO’s Gender Officer, Blessing Uchendu, and SSDO’s Good Governance Lead, Nkem Awachie. The training was executed using the Women Peer Education Resource Kit. 

It covered essential areas such as personal development, hygiene, livelihood, nutrition, and inclusion. The women were taught how to mobilize and organize for collective actions, rights and responsibilities, family and community relationships, and well-being.