Graduates of the UNHCR/AUN Vocational Skills Training (Plastic Bag Recycling) Project have expressed desire for further assistance from the humanitarian community and government so as to enable them set up petty businesses as they return to their camps. The female IDPs made the request in a chat with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) during their graduation ceremony on February 25, 2016, in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.
Recognising that the project has benefited them immensely, because they were idle before the project started, Zainab Abdulahi requested the organisers and the government to help patronise them with the means to set up petty businesses as they return to their camps. “We wish to appeal to the powers that be and the general public to help buy our products. Some of us came to the training with high blood pressure, but that was solved as soon as we started interacting with each other. With the skills acquired, we will be able not only to empower other Nigerians but also help to clean up the country,” Zainab said.
Corroborating her, Martha Jekuga, a mother of triplets, acknowledged that she had personally learnt a lot from the training, and her husband and children were highly embracing the programme. “I am going to use the skills acquired from the training to teach other women, girls and even men in the camps, as well as people in town when the need arises. We want the government to provide us with vehicles that will help transport us to other local governments and states,” Martha pleaded.
Like her colleagues, Josephine Timothaus were grateful that she learnt lots of new things during the training – how to make bags and key holders from waste nylon bags. She, however, expressed disappointment that they were not given money that would help them set up their own petty businesses and resolve some of their family challenges. “I am particularly disappointed because we bought the materials with our own money and expected that we would be given the proceeds from their sales; but that has not happened, even though we need capital to buy more materials and set up small businesses,” she said, while hoping that something would still be done in that regard.
Josephine’s thoughts were shared by Monica Pius, who was equally bitter that the proceeds from the sales of their products were not given to them as promised from the onset. “Instead, we were only given one bag each containing start-up tools, and certificates. In fact, most women are not so happy about this. Without money, we cannot do much. I have eight (8) children and I cannot sponsor them in school because the money is not there.”
However, one of the trainers and coordinator of the training exercise, Esther Emmanuel, allayed the fears of the IDPs, saying that the proceeds from the sales of the bags would be shared equally to the trainees with due time. She expressed delight that the project had hugely helped the IDPs, most of whom depend on it for their livelihood and the upkeep of their families. That is why the IDPs were given each a bag containing start-up kits such as 4 scissors, 4 tapes and 12 crocheting pins.
“Before we started the programme, most of the IDPs looked so haggard, but now they are very bright and jovial. In order to sustain the programme, we need a vehicle to enable us move to other local governments and states to transform the lives of other people. The project has also had a positive impact on the environment in Yola, which was hitherto littered with waste polythene bags. We want to replicate this in other parts of the country,” Esther Emmanuel explained.
Cesar Tshilombo, Head of Sub Office Bauchi, who represented the UNHCR Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, described the project as one envisaged to create self-reliance among female IDPs. “As you know, if you give a fish to a man, you feed for one day, but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a life time,” he said, describing livelihood as “ one of the most effective tools of protecting IDPs, refugees and other persons of concern.”
Cesar said IDPs and host communities were picked for the project because they remain the most hit by the insurgency in the Northeast. He insisted that due to delay in the release of financial resources, only 300 women were reached for the training. He, however, paid tribute to the American University of Nigeria (AUN) for investing enormously in the project, adding that the new challenge now was how to sustain the trainees and the project.
Cesar enjoined all humanitarian actors, government and other stakeholders to join forces with UNHCR to deal with the huge displacement crisis in the Northeast, which continues to take its toll on the local populations by plunging them into greater poverty.
Head of Field Unit Yola, Anchinesh Maheteme, described the training of IDPs on the recycling of discarded plastic bags as timely, because, “livelihood is key for the protection of IDPs and other persons of concern, who are likely to be exposed to different protection risks, including exploitation.” She added that when well protected, female IDPs will be able to fight for their human rights and make meaningful contributions to the development of their communities.
“I believe that with the start-up kits we have provided to the female IDPs graduating from this vocational skills training, they will be able to generate income and sustain themselves,” Anchinesh said, even as she stated that plans are underway to expand the project in 2016 to include men, particularly the youth. She explained that the initial project focused mainly on women because they constitute the bulk of the most vulnerable and those more exposed to protection risks. She expressed satisfaction that besides empowering the IDPs, the plastic bag recycling project has gone a long way to contribute to environmental protection in Yola, which could be replicated in other parts of the Northeast in particular and Nigeria at large.
Retracing the genesis of the plastic bag recycling programme at AUN, the project coordinator, Jennifer Che said it was conceived as a result of plastic waste, the biggest, never degrading polluter, that littered the town of Yola. The solution was, therefore, to transform such waste into wealth or useful products, and in the end some 1,650 waste nylon bags have been removed from Yola, thereby helping to clean up the town.
According to her, before taking up the training of 450 most vulnerable female IDPs and members of the host communities with grant from UNHCR, AUN had earlier trained some 200 local women in Yola and Jimeta, Adamawa State.
“The project targets women who have been left to themselves and taken to chaos. I am satisfied that we have given these women something to do, which they enjoy doing, even though at first, they were a bit shy and reluctant to accept. We have given them a little bit of hope, that by doing this new job, they can find a way of keeping themselves busy and make some money for themselves,” she said.
To Veronica Yohanna of UNHCR Yola, the plastic bag recycling project is unique in that it is something many people take for granted, but which UNHCR has seen as useful to harness plastic waste for the economic good of the IDPs. She also underscored the fact that the project helped to solve the problem of stress and high blood pressure experienced by the IDPs before they came to the training. This happened as the women interacted, shared their experiences, built on peace and trust, as well as laughed together. Mrs. Yohanna hoped that a special market will be created for the trainees to help them be self-sufficient.
A majority of the trained women and children confidently carried themselves tall, beamed with delight and testified that they loved the project. On their faces, you could see that they wished that the project be sustained. This is why Mrs. Che disclosed that another project was in the pipeline by UNHCR to train another batch of IDPs in the specific making of mats for IDP camps, and to monitor and support those already trained.
Highlights of the colourful graduation ceremony, attended by officials of AUN and local authorities, included sales of articles produced by the trainees (the proceeds of which went to the IDPs), award of certificates to the graduates, and cultural animation.
