By Job Osazuwa

Respite has come the way of some victims of the terror attack on Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, who were kidnapped in 2014. They now have cause to smile again, as their future no longer appears bleak.

The Chibok Ladies Vocational Tailoring Programme (CLVTP) has been instituted to ameliorate the sufferings of some the rescued and traumatized schoolgirls.

CLVTP is a platform designed by Adrian Ogun to give skills in tailoring to some of the girls, under the supervision of the chairman of the Abducted Chibok Girls Parents Association, Yakubu Nkeki.

Daily Sun gathered that, so far, two batches of 24 trainees have graduated from the programme. Four facilitators were engaged for the training in different workshops within Chibok community in the state.

On June 11, Nkeki led five of the graduates and one of the facilitators, Mrs. Rahilla James, alongside sewing machines and samples of clothes sewn, to Abuja, on the invitation of Ogun.

They were all full of praise to the chartered accountant from the London School of Economics and Abuja real estate developer for giving them joy and hope. According to Nkeki, efforts at rehabilitating the girls by the Federal Government  suffered setbacks because of certain factors, including nonchalance by ministry officials. 

According to him, “The Federal Government sent some of the girls to American University, Yola, but, due to individual differences, some of the girls refused to stay in school, some preferred to get married, some preferred hand work.

“And for the purpose of those that preferred hand work, I contacted the minister for women affairs, whom the President handed me over to, to facilitate training for these girls but the effort proved abortive.

“So, these girls were sitting idly at home until Ogun came and said he wanted the girls to be involved in skill acquisition so that they would have something doing after marriage, and that is what we are doing now.”

He said 24 of the girls, some of whom are now married, have undergone the six-month training and have been well-equipped to stand on their own.

Related News

One of the beneficiaries, Mary Dauda, thanked Ogun for the impact he has made in the lives of all of them.

On her experience during the training, she said, “We really enjoyed the training, which lasted six months.”

She was full of appreciation to the family that trained them. She said she and her colleagues are now professional tailors; they have been sewing different designs on commercial basis for people in Chibok to cater for themselves and their younger ones.

Responding, Ogun said he took the initiative on behalf of his church, Saint Mark’s Church, United Kingdom.

He said he was encouraged by his wife to give a means of livelihood to the girls who seemed to have been rejected and neglected by society because of the humiliation they experienced in the hands of their abductors.

Ogun said rehabilitating them by giving a source of livelihood and income was the best that could have happened to them in their situation.

He promised to see to the challenges of inadequacy of equipment being experienced by the facilitators to hasten the training programme and to accommodate more beneficiaries.

In April 2014, 276 female students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok were abducted from the school by kidnappers believed to be of the Boko Haram Islamist sect.

Following the attack, many kind-hearted organisations, human rights campaigners and civil society organisations mounted different campaigns targeted at getting the girls out of captivity.

After several national and international efforts, many of the abducted girls were rescued in batches, while, till date, others could not be found.

The Federal Government, faith-based organisations and individuals made promises to assist in giving life back to the girls by rehabilitating them and reintegrating them into the society and give them means of livelihood to avoid being stigmatized.