To reduce the number of out-of-school children in the country and help widows in society, a communal organisation under the auspices of Okam Forum said it would be empowering 50 widows with small and medium-scale enterprises or cottage industries grants of N250, 000, and 200 indigent with scholarships in Secondary Schools and tertiary institutions at N100,000 each.
Chief Emmanuel Ameh, the Chairman of the forum, made this known while briefing with the reporters.
In his words, he revealed that the main aim for the empowerment is to show their support due to the high rate of drop-outs in the Orokam community.
He said some of these drop outs is due to the inability of many poor distressed families to finance the education of their wards with many identified brilliant students affected.
According to the chairman, the organisation which is aimed at promoting the socio-economic development of Orokam in the Ogbadibo local government area of Benue State will focus on brilliant students identified either as orphans or from very poor families who need support to progress in school.
He further said that the forum would be honoring many national icons and members of the association for distinguished national service and commitment to community development within the Idoma Nation, and Nigeria at large on February 7, where the scholarship and grants would be given to beneficiaries.
He said that they will also focus on other issues like the health support programme for Community Health Insurance with N5 million revolving drug fund and medicare to reduce infant and maternal mortality, and disease prevalence in Orokam.
“Youth self-employment scheme to reduce the prevalence of illicit drug addiction, acts of criminality and delinquency among youths in Orokam who have been out of school and unemployed by re-directing their energy to trades, ICT, Shoe-making, phone repairs and other technical hands-on training to be supported with minimal funding and kits to enable them to be self-employed.
“It is projected that training, kits, and take-off seed for each beneficiary will be N150,000 for each of the 200 youth in the pilot phase. This is estimated at N30,000,000. As a prominent community association, we are motivated to begin these programmes because we believe that philanthropy and acts of kindness are values shared in a common humanity. Over 40 Nigerian icons mostly of Idoma extraction will be honoured in three different categories: community service, meritorious retirement from service, and promotion and strategic appointments,” he said.
