EMPOWER project targets female-headed households in the community of Ngwo, Egugu state. This project opens up spaces for women to understand their full potential and use that to improve their livelihood and that of their children. The project empowers rural community women to move as one voice and demand from their elected or appointed public officers access to social services that positively affect their economic lives. 30 women who are breadwinners from Ngwo community are selected for this intervention, although more women also benefit. The project also identifies and selects women with similar interests in the area of farming with a specific focus on palm oil production. Women are educated on several ways to organise themselves, mobilise, coordinate and advocate to those in power to facilitate provision of mechanized equipment used in extracting palm-oil; an innovative way from the normal practice where harvested palm-fruits are crudely processed through a tedious process of matching with feet or pounding with mortar and pestle to extract oil.  

Empowering women to strengthen their economic security 

“Politicians could take our votes and then kick us with their boots upon ascension to political power. Our skill of palm oil extraction cannot even be amplified by them to enable us rise above poverty level. No, they do not care. So we live, we continue to exist, a downtrodden, meaningless life. We still produce palm oil still in the crude manual way our fore runners did decades ago.” A woman from Ngwo, Egugu State, Nigeria. 

“Ndi Ime ezi” which means “bush”, “uncivilised” people is how women from the rural Ngwo, Egugu State of Nigeria are referred to.  Ideally, they are seen during elections as political rubber stamps used to make up the numbers during elections for the men to access political offices. They hardly have a voice in the community let alone the big city. The women here describe themselves as Amachara Ngwo Women, and have perceived themselves as living a laid back life of, “sidon look” that means “sitting down and just looking”. This is a life that has generally been riddled with poverty, hopelessness and marginalisation. A life that has been seen as counting for nothing, one that does not mean anything because the women perceived themselves as a voiceless bunch of old women with no stable strong economic base. The only time they were valued was as political rubber stamps during political campaigns and elections. Their support was bought with a paltry packet of salt, a few cups of rice, 200 Naira for transport.   

The situation for the women remained dire until Madam Grace Okwor, a retired teacher came back to live in the village among the women.  She was taken aback by the situation but concluded that there was hope and something could be done to change their situation.  She began to organise the women; she gave them motivational talks to restore their hope.  She alerted them to the fact that mechanised production of palm oil was the only way out from the poverty.  The women were sceptical; they believed that they did not have the capacity to achieve mechanisation.  However, once the thought had been planted in their minds the matter did not stop bothering them.  The irking feeling did not go away until the MAMA project supported came their way.                    

The Mothers and Marginalised Advocacy Centre (MAMA Centre) is a Non-Governmental, non-profit making, non-partisan organisation established in 2014. The Organisation engages government on legislative and policy advocacy to eliminate threats to the socio-economic and political status of the marginalised groups and advance their socio-economic and political rights towards self-determination, self-reliance and self-sustenance in Nigeria. Through its engagement strategies—advocacy, capacity building, research and networking, the organisation works to ensure full participation and partnership of women and men in productive and reproductive life, including shared responsibilities for the care and nurturing of children and maintenance of the household. 

MAMA implemented the EMPOWER project that targeted female-headed households in the community of Ngwo, Egugu state. This project aimed to open up spaces for women to understand their full potential and use that to improve their livelihood and that of their children. It also sought to empower rural community women to move as one voice and demand from their elected or appointed public officers access to social services that positively affect their economic lives. Thirty women who are breadwinners from Ngwo community were selected for this intervention.  

The project identified and selected women with similar interests in the area of farming with a specific focus on palm oil production. Women were educated on several ways to organise themselves, mobilise, coordinate and advocate to those in power to facilitate provision of mechanised equipment used in extracting palm oil; an innovative way from the normal practice where harvested palm-fruits are crudely processed through a tedious process of matching with feet or pounding with mortar and pestle to extract oil. 

 “It was in the year 2018, a group of “umunwanyi obi oma” (kind hearted women), that was how we referred to them visited our community. They came to sensitise us on malaria disease and prevention. They introduced treated mosquito nets to us and even gave out to us freely. Later we got to know the group had a name, they are called MAMA Centre! At the end of the intervention, our champion approached MAMA and discussed our plight. How do we go about procuring a machine to boost our palm oil production? That was how the VOICE project EMPOWER for Amachara Ngwo Women was born. We may not have reached all our goals, but we have seen the light! We are a formidable group NOW! Capable of speaking out in one voice! 

The organisation has learned several lessons during the project implementation. It became evident that anything is achievable with determination, unity and one voice and that one has to step out to make that needed change. For effective community engagement, it is important to have the community gatekeepers such as the traditional rulers along. The project succeeded in creating an impact with a critical constituency in the society.  It was realised that rural women have a world of untapped resources, and that one should always engage them in diverse interventions as they have the potential to become a strong force to reckon with economically, socially and otherwise.