FCT 1st Lady’s Foundation empowers 300

…As Dame Jonathan lauds feat

By Favour Nnabugwu

Over 300 men and women were empowered with skills, relevant equipment and take-off grants by the Al-Muhibbah Foundation, a brain child of the FCT Minister’s wife, Hajia Aisha Bala Mohammed, even as Dame Patience Jonathan commended the feat as one of the best ways to achieving Millennium Development (MDGs) in the country.

Dame Jonathan at the two-year anniversary of the Foundation, held in Abuja penultimate Saturday, said empowering the nation’s youth, women and men is key to achieving MDGs.
She said, “Empowering the youth is sacred as joblessness can lead to any type of social vice which may be a threat to the security of the country”.

She lauded Aisha Mohammed for following her footsteps, saying her organisation had trained and also empowered over 4,000 women, including taking care of children with heart condition and also paying for their treatment outside the country.

As part of the activities marking two years of her foundation, the FCT Minister’s wife distributed empowerment materials to over 300 beneficiaries drawn from the six area councils of the FCT.  Aamong other empowerment equipment distributed to the beneficiaries were: 63 tailoring machines, 52 refrigerators, 52 generators, 50 catering equipment, 39 grinding machines, 15 hand driers, 7 computers, and take off grants for 83 beneficiaries.

She said: “The gesture is meant to equip the beneficiaries who have acquired private skills through this foundation but lack the adequate capital to commence operation”.

The first lady maintained that “empowering the youth is sacred as joblessness could lead to any type of social vices which may be a threat to the security of the country.”

She said that the foundation has also commenced work to rehabilitate, beautify and modernise the existing Christian and Muslim cemeteries in Garki.

According to her, she has been encouraged by the empowerment initiative of the First lady, Patience Jonathan.

Mohammed said: “Today, across the nation, most cemeteries and burial grounds are in deplorable conditions, they have been turned into refuse dump sites due to indiscriminate solid waste disposal.