Date: 2017-06-16

...Another seeks improved waste disposal A hands-on training workshop with the theme 'Enhancing effectiveness and efficiency of women-run Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Nigeria' was recently held in Lagos. The workshop, which was held in Ikeja, sought to empower women to enhance their capacity to run sustainable NGOs that can seek support and funding from reputable organisations. It was facilitated by the Enterprise for Development International (EfDI), an international development agency and supported by ExxonMobil, an oil company.

Participants at the event were drawn from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. While some already had operating NGOs, other participants needed a boost from the workshop to get themselves up and running.

The sessions, which were facilitated by highly regarded resource persons, covered NGO Start-Up, Fundraising and Proposal Development for Programmes and Projects, Effective Use of ICT for Running NGOs & Stakeholder and Partnership. Case studies aided participation and enhanced understanding of the subjects covered.

The keynote address was delivered by the senior contracts engineer, ExxonMobil, Mrs. Patricia Opene-Odili. She emphasised that ExxonMobil was passionate about the concerns of women and actively promotes opportunities for women to network and build capacity through initiatives such as this.

Opene-Odili highlighted the importance of passion in running an NGO, noting that "it is a critical key ingredient needed to sustain vision and to succeed". She enjoined the participants to network with those who have established NGOs in order to learn and build on their knowledge and also to be guided in the right direction.

She also implored participants to consider segments of society especially their immediate environment, where they can be more impactful and affect lives positively.

Programmes coordinator, Mrs. Constance Nwokejiobi, in her remarks to the participants, encouraged the women to pursue businesses that would impact the society positively. She charged the women to think about themselves and consider flashbacks to their childhoods, early aspirations and dreams of the future. In her words, "women have their dreams, you know what you want to be, let it be".

Meanwhile another NGO based in Ilorin, Kwara state, Vico Recyclers has lamented Nigerians' awful approach to waste disposal and management in the country. He said such attitude has become a serious threat to environmental development in the country.

The CEO of the organisation, Mr. Victor Hamzat who disclosed this to journalists in Ilorin after the group held a sensitisation programme to mark the recent World Environment day said, "Everybody does not like waste. People don't want to see waste. People's attitude to waste management and disposal has been terrible and this is uncalled for."

According to him, "That is why we are raising awareness on the involvement of all in waste disposal, as government alone cannot do all things. It all boils down to our attitude to our environment and members of the public are encouraged to take good care of their waste. There are better good values that can be given to waste.

"As they say, a man's waste is another person's treasure. We should appreciate our environment by keeping it clean always. We should make sure we don't litter our environment with waste and we should not block the drains.

On the exercise, Victor added "we are celebrating the World Environment Day today. We are all out to raise awareness about protecting our environment and getting people involved. This is our planet and our home. Everyone needs to play his role.

"Vicfold Recyclers is a social enterprise and what we do is to give value for waste. We actually give people reward in exchange for their waste. We collect waste especially solid waste in exchange for gift items like electronics and cash and even food items", he added.