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Rebecca Samuai is the chairperson of the Okpakpata Women Maize Milling Multipurpose Cooperative. The cooperative has a membership of 40 women farmers. It was formed after attending the Basic Accounting for Cooperatives Training facilitated by ActionAid. The women were once uncoordinated and unorganized, lacking synergy and cooperation.
The women have increased their productivity and yield because of the exposure they got from ActionAid capacity development programmes.
Rebecca and her team's first taste of learning was the exposure they got from the training sponsored by ActionAid, and they applied the lessons immediately. "We have learnt how to do things together with others, we have been thought about the power of togetherness and the culture of savings" she said.
Farmers have backbreaking experience processing their farm produce. It is one of the challenges of smallholder women farmers. "We travel Nine miles on motor bike to the nearest Mill processing Machine, on a patched road" She said. Aside the stress of travelling long road to Mill Cassava, the cost also adds up to the overall market price. "It cost 1,500 Naira to transport one bag of cassava. The journey is long and exhausting" she said.
At the inception of ActionAid peace building initiative in the community, like other communities, a baseline survey showed the link between poverty and violence; hence the need to include a livelihood component. The women requested for a Maize Milling Machine, so that the stress of traveling miles for processing and the cost can be cut.
With the installed Milling Machine fully operational, there is less stress for the women farmers, their productivity has improved, and they earn more revenue.
"At the root of our problem is illiteracy and idleness" said Godwin Alhassan, one of the youth leaders representing Ofuloko.
The educational infrastructure in Ofuloko is dilapidated. 6 mud-made classrooms sits about 400 children, cramped rooms with only two windows, the children learn sitting on cold floor. "Thanks to ActionAid for building new school blocks for our children and providing learning materials" Alhassan said.
Ofuloko, like many communities in Kogi State, lack the essential amenities to thrive, the youths are uneducated and without jobs, they become easy mercenaries for politicians who use them as thugs during election.
As observed, the high rate of unemployment and the level of illiteracy are main drivers of conflict in this community. But the presence of ActionAid has transformed their mindset and view about one another.
ActionAid encouraged formation of different groups within the community: The youth group and the women group.
These groups chose their own leaders, they meet regularly, they discuss issues affecting them and the community, they share job or skill building opportunities and they know themselves better. The people from the six sub communities are now better united, living the true meaning of Ofuloko: settled under the tree; the farming community is learning to live together in peace .
Unlike before, the community has not reported clashes; they say ActionAid programmes keep them busy. ActionAid built a factory which housed Cassava Processing Machine for the Women and a Maize Milling Machine for the youth group. So, instead of gathering to gossip, they gather to work together.
How ActionAid Intervened.
One of the first steps to ensuring equal opportunity especially for women is through advocacy to traditional institutions on the need to provide lands for women seeking also to persuade the traditional leaders to expunge the tradition forbidding women to own inheritance.
Land has always been a key factor of production and a determining factor for ending poverty. Hence; the lack of access to land has constrained women from advancing economically.
The issues of economic exclusion of woman is been addressed through ActionAid's direct engagements with the traditional institutions in the communities.
Also, the project's women action plan and livelihood activities assisted in the provision of empowerment programmes like: Cassava and Maize Processing Machine, Block Molding Machines and other direct impact programmes.
Women and youth cooperative leaders were also trained on Book Keeping and Financial Management.