CEADER: Dressmaking and tailoring program for former commercial sex workers living in slums

Nigeria – CEADER received $5000 grant from GPA to implement a skills training program for commerical sex workers in the slums of Nigeria.

Excerpt from CEADER final report to GPA dated November, 2013:

Participant Ebere Ofofe: “Ahh the training has done a lot in my life. I know that with it, I can train my own children, I can take care of myself.”

CEADER has successfully enrolled 12 youth girls for two 2 skills acquisition training programs,hair dressing and tailoring. Of the twelve project beneficiaries, 4 of them are sex workers who have shown uncommon commitment to securing a skill to help them live a more secure life. The trainees have remained very enthusiastic about their participation in the training and are already excitedly making plans for their transition to becoming economically independent once they complete the training. The sex workers have reported that they are no longer under desperate pressure to earn an income as they have already started receiving tips from customers (client) that they help serve in their different places of training. CEADER staff are especially delighted about the outcome of this project. The trainees’ excitement has been quite infectious and encouraging to CEADER staff.

Specifically, the implementation of this project has resulted in the establishment, for the first time in the target slum community, Ijora Badia, a group of youth girls who have committed to influencing other youths in entrepreneurship development. For the sex workers who are participating in the training who have shown unusual interest and ability to learn really fast, they keep reiterating the immense benefits to their future the training provides. There are obvious indications that this project will indeed contribute to combating the p prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Ijora Badiya with sex workers being economically empowered.

The project has helped foster a mutually beneficial relationship between trainers in the target community and the youth- it has awakened a consciousness of the economic deprivation suffered by youth as a result of lack of skills. People in the community had simply assumed that the youth were not interested in making anything of their lives. There is now a definite commitment to ensuring that opportunities are sought to ensure increased entrepreneurship opportunities for the poor youth in target community. We have come to the conclusion that this is a project that should be replicated in slums across the global south.

The trainers have also shown unprecedented commitment to ensuring that project objectives are achieved. On noticing that 2 friends who were enrolled in her salon were always chatting with one another and not paying much attention to the training, their trainer decided to separate them by transferring one of the 2 trainees as well as the fee paid by CEADER to a near by salon.
We thank GPA for supporting this project which has strengthened CEADER’s work with youth girls slums. We will certainly replicate this project in order slum and encourage other groups in Nigeria as well outside Nigeria to introduce similar project activities that especially target youth girls in poor slum communities because of their peculiar circumstances and challenges.