{"id":60626,"date":"2025-02-06T08:33:24","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T08:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=60626"},"modified":"2025-02-06T08:44:45","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T08:44:45","slug":"empowerment-advocacy-menstrual-health-agan-community-receives-lifeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/02\/06\/empowerment-advocacy-menstrual-health-agan-community-receives-lifeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowerment, Advocacy, Menstrual Health: Agan Community Receives Lifeline"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>By Samson Adeyanju<\/b><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Agan Community in Benue State came alive as the &#8216;Strength for the Weak Empowerment Initiative&#8217; and &#8216;Center for Family Empowerment&#8217;, in collaboration with the &#8216;Cardinal Onaiyekan Foundation for Peace&#8217; (COFP), hosted a one-day empowerment programme themed &#8220;Strengthening Community Resilience through Empowerment, Advocacy, and Menstrual Health.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The initiative, spearheaded by Tersoo Nande, a COFP fellow, aimed at fostering unity between Christians and Muslims while addressing critical issues of economic empowerment and menstrual health education.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the gathering, Tersoo Nande explained the significance of the initiative, emphasizing that the COFP fellowship project is designed to foster interfaith collaboration.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-60628\" src=\"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG-20250206-WA0010-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG-20250206-WA0010-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG-20250206-WA0010-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG-20250206-WA0010-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG-20250206-WA0010.jpg 1040w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My colleague informed me that this community comprises Muslims and Christians, and that is why we brought this project here,&#8221; he stated.<\/p>\n<p>The community leader, Chief Patrick Agbaka, urged residents to embrace the lessons shared, stressing that consistent practice would bring long-term benefits.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you are taught something and you keep practicing it, it will be profitable to you. But if you don\u2019t master it, it will never profit you,&#8221; he advised.<\/p>\n<p>One of the key highlights of the event was a practical session on reusable sanitary pads. A participant demonstrated how to redesign fabric into pads, insert absorbent wool, and properly maintain hygiene by washing the cloth while discarding the wool after use.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the organizers empowered widows with livestock, equipping them with sustainable means of livelihood. As a symbolic gesture of unity, trees were planted at both the community church and mosque, signifying growth, peace, and resilience.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-60629\" src=\"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG-20250206-WA0012-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG-20250206-WA0012-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG-20250206-WA0012-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG-20250206-WA0012.jpg 780w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The initiative was widely applauded by the community.<\/p>\n<p>Expressing his gratitude, the Imam of the community, Ibrahim Tijani said, &#8220;I am happy that you came to empower women in our community. I pray that what they have learnt should be useful to them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Beneficiaries like Paulina Unum also shared heartfelt appreciation. Overwhelmed with gratitude, she said, &#8220;We have never seen such a wonderful thing like this before, but we have seen it today. We wish that this good thing will last forever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another beneficiary, Lydia Ihyamber, acknowledged Cardinal Onaiyekan for his role in the initiative.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This thing you have done is something we have never witnessed before. May God bless Cardinal abundantly for remembering us,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>For some like Veronica Agan, the training was not just about learning but also about economic empowerment. The unemployed tailor, saw an opportunity in the reusable pads.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The training is helpful to me. I can sew the pads and sell them. I will hawk them around the community and inform women that something has come to solve their menstrual problem,&#8221; she remarked.<\/p>\n<p>The event underscored the power of empowerment, advocacy, and interfaith collaboration in fostering resilient communities.<\/p>\n<p>Through education, economic support, and environmental consciousness, the initiative has sown seeds of lasting change in Agan, with the hope that more such interventions will follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samson Adeyanju Agan Community in Benue State came alive as the &#8216;Strength for the Weak Empowerment Initiative&#8217; and &#8216;Center for Family Empowerment&#8217;, in collaboration with the &#8216;Cardinal Onaiyekan Foundation for Peace&#8217; (COFP), hosted a one-day empowerment programme themed &#8220;Strengthening Community Resilience through Empowerment, Advocacy, and Menstrual Health.&#8221; The initiative, spearheaded by Tersoo Nande, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":60627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-60626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60626"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60635,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60626\/revisions\/60635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}