The Dewdrop Foundation (DDF) is a non-profit organisation established in 2002. The overall goal is to improve the livelihoods of vulnerable groups in society, especially in rural communities, by enhancing their capacity to fight for their rights; and engage in enterprises that guarantee them sustainable livelihoods.

The primary focus is to develop and implement customised sustainable life-long learnership programmes for effective capacity strengthening at grassroots levels, creating job opportunities, and empowering women and youth to become independent entrepreneurs. These objectives have been achieved over the years through community development and skills acquisition programmes aimed at domestic workers, teachers, community leaders, women organisations, healthcare service providers and other hospitality service providers. The foundation also mitigates the ills of domestic child servitude (also known as modern day slavery) and internal child trafficking through advocacy for the survivors.

The ‘Women Empowerment and Inclusive Governance’ project seeks to strengthen the economic capacity, voice and participation of women in governance in Umuode Community, Nkanu East LGA, Enugu State. This builds on the achievements of the OXFAM Voice project implemented in Umuode from February 2018 to January 2019 aimed at “fostering a sustainable and transformational leadership structure that empowers women to participate in decision making processes in the community’’.

This project aims to consolidate and scale up the outcomes earlier achieved by expanding the project’s reach and building the capacities of more women in leadership and strategic advocacy aimed at promoting women’s access to resources, specifically land for enhanced economic empowerment, thereby reducing their economic vulnerability. A key outcome of this project is to enable women demand and obtain access to land resources for cooperative farming and sustainable income generation. This would reduce their economic vulnerability, enhance their self-reliance, amplify their voices in the community and protection from sexual exploitation and violence.

Key activities intended to drive these outcomes include
i. Capacity building/training workshops on leadership and advocacy to enable the women leaders utilize their space in the Traditional Ruler/Igwe’s Council effectively to speak for themselves. Likewise, more women with leadership potentials would be identified and trained to support advocacy activities.
ii. Voice Roundtable for monthly dialogues led by the women who are members of the Traditional Council with support from DDF to share ideas, address challenges, strategize and coordinate advocacy activities to advance women rights and access to resources in Umuode.
iii. Facilitate the acquisition and access to land resources for cooperative farming and sustainable income generation for women.
iv. Enterprise Development Clinics to host trainings and mentorship for women on local product processing and innovation, marketing strategy, branding, sales, finance, access to credit and market.