A Non-Governmental Organisation, Helpline Foundation for the Needy, Abuja, has distributed food items, clothes, and other items to 350 widows, Persons With Disabilities, and other vulnerable people in Abuja.
Its President, Dr Jumai Ahmadu, distributed the items to the beneficiaries during the 20th edition of the organisation’s 2023 end-of-year and Christmas celebration , in Abuja on Saturday.
She said that the donation was put together in collaboration with two other NGOs: Right Care Foundation and Ladies of Grace.
Ahmadu explained that the beneficiaries were carefully selected from over 50 women groups across the Federal Capital Territory, Nasarawa State and Niger .
She said that beyond the end-of-year celebration and provision of food items and material support to the less privileged, the organisation was also supporting the beneficiaries, to make them self-reliant.
Ahmadu said that the NGO had empowered some of the women with some income generating skills, adding that the end-of-year party provided an opportunity for the women to showcase their products.
“We decided this year to make a progress report of what we have been doing. So, we brought the women out to see what they had done.
“This is a way of inspecting and monitoring their progress to see if the efforts we have put in are yielding results and we are very happy with what we have seen today,” the president said.
Ahmadu said that the empowerment support would enable them to earn money for themselves, pay their children’s school fees, and support other vulnerable women around them.
“The women have made a commitment that by this time next year, they will invite us to inaugurate various handmade products.
“I am optimistic they will make a difference once they have the needed enabling environment to express themselves,” she said.
The President of Right Care Foundation, Mrs Chinasa Ohaa, who was represented by Mr Richards Omotayo, an official of the NGO, described ameliorating the condition of the less privileged as a “national service”.
Similarly, Mrs Mariam Haruna of Ladies of Grace, called on relevant stakeholders to join hands in empowering the downtrodden in the society.