By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY – EDO United USA recently brought succour to about 60 widows selected from the three senatorial districts that make up the state to help them start a new life.

But a young lady identified as Becky Osagie stole the show as she voluntarily returned from Europe a few years ago and chose to go into an unfamiliar terrain to be a vulcanizer. The group gave some work tools and promised to support her to get a befitting shop for the safekeep of her work tools.

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She said she was elated by the gesture of the group saying “I travelled abroad and voluntarily came back to start a vulcanizer work. I am so happy and I appreciate this and I am so grateful to Edo United. What they have given to me is capital intensive and they will make my job easier and more efficient. I didn’t have anybody I could run to for help when I returned from Europe because what I experienced there was not what I expected. I first thought of going into welding and fabrication but I discovered that it will be time consuming and expensive, then I thought of transportation but I could not even get anybody that could buy a vehicle for me. I was motivated y a video I watched about a woman vulcanizer and on enquiries, it would take me less time to learn that is I chose that and I a indeed grateful/

Another beneficiary, Janet Ekhator speaking on behalf of others said “We are so grateful for this thing happening in Nigeria today that you can gather us in this way to help us, we are so grateful”

Donors
Speaking to NDV, president of the group, Felix Iyoha said the non governmental orgnisation is interested in helping the underprivileged in Edo State and possibly beyond.

He said: “We have been in existence since 2004 and we are 43 in number right now. We are based in Houston Texas, we decided this year to do an outreach program for widows and vulnerable women in Edo state and we chose 60 widows across the three senatorial districts and we gave out grinding machines.

 “The idea behind that is that it was better to empower them, buy something for them so that they will be able to use and get residual income as opposed to just sharing cash to them. We chose widows because of the situation that has befallen them in the society. Some of them were full time house wives before their husbands passed on and they don’t have any other means of livelihood so we decided to assist them.

 “We reached out to the lady vulcanizer to know her needs because we were impressed that she chose to do that instead of just laying around and not doing anything so we raised money and bought her some equipments including compressor machine and boxes and other equipments to automate her business as much as possible. We are also going to give out money for renting a shop to make her job more comfortable and secure.”

Funding

On how the association gets its fund, the Vice President, Kenneth  Ihaza said “We raise money in-house, almost all our members contributed something to this. We also have donors from all walks of life, even non Nigerians donated to it when they heard about the initiative and they felt that it was not only laudable but something they wanted to partake in and we received donations from about 14 people outside the union to do this.”

Government cautions
The state governor, Godwin Obaseki who was represented at the occasion by his Chief of Staff, Osaigbovo Iyoha cautioned against the beneficiaries selling the consignments for other uses. He said “investing in people is the best investment, let us make use of these materials so that next time they will be encouraged to do more”