By Gabriel Ewepu, ABUJA

A nonprofit making international Civil Society Organisation that fights poverty and injustice, ActionAid Nigeria, AAN, created alternatives to curb irregular migration as it sponsored four girls on a fashion designing internship programme in Italy for three months.

According to AAN, the sponsorship is part of a series of social-economic engagements in its Migration II Project, which AAN through its funding affiliate; ActionAid Italy with funding from the Italian Agency for International Cooperation IAIC, made it possible for the four girls to go for the internship course for three months at Progetto QUID in Milan, Italy, and they are Ayomanor Elohor Joyce, Omotolani Badaki, Ogieriakuy Tracy Osahenkhoe and Chinyere Anulude who emerged from out of 2000 youth in Edo State who participated in the programme (Phase I & II) after a rigorous and transparent process.

“Based on the objective of the project, these young energetic and promising Nigerian female tailors departed Nigeria to commence the comprehensive Fashion Designing course which is part of ActionAid’s effort to create alternatives to irregular migration of Nigerian youth – providing stylized socio-economic empowerment programs capable of jump-starting their careers in various fields and reducing reliance on illegal means for economic sustainability.

“The Migration II project is a three-year project, designed to create alternatives to migration through socio-economic empowerment and sensitization of Nigerian youths (18-35) years to the risk of irregular migration.

“The project also provides institutional strengthening to some state’s institutional structures to mitigate irregular migration. So far, a total of 1,500 potential migrants and 500 returned emigrants, 60 per cent of them women, have been trained and empowered in different skills which include fashion design, hairdressing, shoe, and bag making, poultry, fish farming, aluminium fabrication, makeover and bead making, cosmetology, catering and graphics”, AAN explained.

To date, ActionAid through the Migration II Project has successfully trained 2000 youths and provided empowerment equipment in addition to a seed grant totalling N65 million to cooperative groups of 100 clusters to further support their businesses.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to improving the socio-economic conditions of young people so that they can make informed and voluntary choices, instead of being forced by economic causes to migrate.

Meanwhile, during the pre-travel orientation reception held at AAN’s headquarters in Abuja, the Director of Resource Mobilization and Innovation, Andrew Mamedu, in a remark assured AAN’s readiness to seeing them advance their craft into a better and profitable venture.

Mamedu disclosed that with passion and commitment of AAN additional seed grant would be secured for their business when they return to Nigeria after the internship.

Also, the Director of Programmes, AAN, Suwaiba Dankanbo, advised the four selected winners to be good ambassadors of themselves, ActionAid Nigeria, and Nigeria, and assured them of ActionAid Nigeria’s unalloyed readiness to elegantly receive them back to the country upon completion of the internship.

Also speaking at the event, ActionAid Nigeria’s Director of Human Resources and Effectiveness, Funmi Olukeye, expressed her delight in the ladies, noting that although the entire process was rigorous and intense, they stayed through and true, demonstrating their creativity and determination to succeed.

Olukeye further admonished them to make sure to transfer the skills they would have gained in Italy to other women in their community when they return to Nigeria.