Beauty queen, Ene Daniels to train 100 young women

Miss Idoma Ambassador, Queen Ene Daniels, said on Friday that she would empower 100 young women drawn from nine Local Government Areas of Benue South Senatorial District.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Daniels said the move was a follow-up to her campaign against rape.

The beauty queen had in April launched an online campaign against rape tagged ‘Give Her Pen, Not Penis,’ to push for the education of the girl-child.

She noted that since the lockdown occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic, there had been alarming cases of rape across Benue, with the highest record of eight victims within one week in May.

“I cannot understand it that eight innocent young girls will fall victims of rape in just one week in Idoma land.

“That informed my outing on June 15th when I led over 200 young ladies to join other civil society groups in protest to the Och’Idoma palace, the Otukpo Police Area Command and other authorities.

“This time, I have packaged a skill acquisition programme that will last for one week for 100 girls in Benue South, to be trained on various vocational skills.

“This will help the girls to be self-reliant and well equipped economically against rape,” Daniels said.

She added that the programme would hold in Otukpa, Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue from Sept. 7 to Sept. 12.

Daniels hinted that they would be trained on how to make shoes, handbags, sanitiser, liquid soup, odor control substance, foot mats, throw pillows, cakes, decoration and makeup.

She said some of them would also be trained on snails and glasscutter farming as well as poultry, while a third group would focus on website designing, programming and development of applications.

According to her, the trainees will also be given seed capital to start up their businesses. They will also be monitored and memtored for two months to ensure the stabilisation of their businesses.

The beauty queen said her family members, friends and some non-governmental organisations were going to assist her with funds for the project.

She said the graduation ceremony for the trainees would be chaired by the Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment, Dr. Ladan Argungu, while Sen. Abba Moro would be the Father of the day.

She added that the Director-General, National Research Institute for Chemical Technology, Zaria, Prof. Jeffrey Barminas, has assured her that a team of international experts would be in Benue to train the participants.