By Ibrahim HassanWuyo

The Global Peace Foundation, an NGO, has trained 40 women in Kannikon Chiefdom of Jema’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State on business development, value addition and financial literacy.

The Foundation gave the women a seed capital of N10, 000 each to venture into various small scale businesses.

The initiative was aimed at promoting peaceful co-existence between Christians and Muslims through economic engagement, the Country Director of the Foundation, Rev. John Hayab, said during the training in Kannikon.

Hayab said the essence was to promote peace through economic empowerment.

“Findings have shown that you can easily unite people economically. When you go to the market people don’t fight, they are busy buying and selling,” he said.

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Hayab noted that the foundation was founded on the premise that all human beings are members of ‘ One family under God’ hence, the need to love one another.

According to him, the organization had over 2 years of active engagement in the community, following tension in the area some years back.

“We’ve had over two years of active engagement in this community, building peace and we can see now there is understanding and calm. ”

“One lesson we learned is that people are not together, sometimes because there is nothing that binds them, and one thing that brings people together is economic engagement.”

“Our findings have shown that they don’t need much money to start a business like frying of bean cake, selling groundnut, yams and the rest,” he said.

He said the organization, Global Peace Foundation Nigeria, was doing the project in memory of an Indian Woman, Gaytri Rai, a lover of peace and development.

“Gaytri Rai Died May 2020 and we wish to celebrate and remember her pious lifestyle. We would also study the successes of the Kannikon pilot project tagged ‘improving women Livelihood in Nigeria’ and replicate it in other communities.

The Northern Coordinator of the NGO, Sheikh Haliru Maraya, on the occasion, tasked the beneficiaries to make good use of the resources given them so as to achieve the objective of the exercise.

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Maraya said that the beneficiaries cut across all religious and ethnic divides in the community.

The traditional ruler of Kannikon Chiefdom, the Tum Nikyob, Tanko Tete, called on the women not to despise the little given them but work to multiply it.

The monarch said, “big things always start small.” He commended the foundation for its continuous efforts towards peacebuilding and sustenance in his domain and its environs.

The beneficiary thanked the foundation for deeming it fit to equip them with the requisite knowledge, skills and funds to start and grow their businesses.

They called on other well-meaning individuals and organizations to emulate Global Peace Foundation and support the poor.

Vanguard