Speaking during the presentation of the empowerment tools, at the Women Development Centre, Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta, the Executive Director of the NGO, Mrs Doyinsola Adebayo, said that the kind gesture was aimed at reintegrating these victims of human trafficking back into society.
She said most of them had lost their means of livelihoods having sold all that they had to raise money for the trips that eventually turned out to be false and sheer decoy for human trafficking.
Mrs Adebayo said “This kind of support is very central to making those who survived human trafficking welcome back home and that the society still values them. Usually, when many of these victims of human trafficking are back from these unfortunate trips, they don’t have anything again to fall back on because many have sold all that they had to raise funds for the failed trips. Some due to idleness or lack of an established source of income could lead to crime. It is all of these that WICCI and its stakeholders and other partners want to eradicate, hence this empowerment programme.”
She said the antidote to stemming the tide of human trafficking was massive awareness creation and sensitization on the dangers of irregular migration among the youths saying that the state and non-state actors should prioritize investments in this area.
Adebayo urged the beneficiaries of the empowerment tools to forget the bitter past and purpose in their hearts to chart a new life for themselves by making judicious use of the training tools that they had received saying that a few years to this time, many of them would have become well-established entrepreneurs and household names in what they do.
WICCI was said to have received a small grant from the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund through the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to provide protection and reintegration assistance to 115 victims of trafficking in Ogun State, Nigeria.
At the event, the Director, of Child Development, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Ajala Adenike advised the beneficiaries not to sell the working tools but to rather go establish the vocations for which they had been trained and begin to contribute their quota to the development of the country.
Others at the event were the Coordinator, of the Ogun State Task Force on Human Trafficking, Mr Akolawole Shoremi, Head of Anti-Human Trafficking, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, Ogun State, Mrs Udeze represented by Mrs Bolanle Ibitoye, Ogun State Coordinator of Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour Mrs Taiwo Adebanjo, Leader, Beninoise Association of Nigeria, Chief Humenu John as well as Assistant Comptroller of Immigration in charge of Anti-Human Trafficking, Mr Akintunde Ogunmakinwa among others.
Also, present as stakeholders at the event were Chairmen of the Zonal Community Development Committees for Abeokuta North, Abeokuta South and Odeda Local Governments; Chief Ajagunjeun, Elder Aregbesola and Alh. Adebayo Wasiu respectively
Caption The Executive Director of WICCI, Mrs. Doyinsola Adebayo was assisted by the Director, of Child Development, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Ajala Adenike to present one of the beneficiaries with the working tools.
