Govt to sponsor wedding of 30 VVF victims - Commissioner

dimeji akinloye

July 25, 2017 10:39 AM

The Commissioner for Ministry of Women Affair said the beneficiaries were those who were discharged from Jahun VVF hospital.

Nigeria has the highest prevalence rate of Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) in the world

The Jigawa Government on Monday said it will sponsor the wedding of 30 ladies that had successfully under gone

Hajiya Ladi Ibrahim, the Commissioner, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Dutse on Monday.

Ibrahim said the beneficiaries were those who were discharged from Jahun VVF hospital in Jahun Local Government Area of the state.

“The victims are those who were discharged from Jahun VVF hospital.

“It is a usual thing for us to sponsor the marriage of anyone of them who finds husband after her operation.

“So we will sponsor their marriage and also provide them with complete house furniture,” Ibrahim said.

The commissioner noted that the gesture was to ensure the reintegration of the victims to the society, after their discharge from the hospital.

“This is because some of them were abandoned completely by their husbands and even sometimes rejected by their relatives.

“Most of them are not financially buoyant to keep themselves clean or hire someone to do that for them.”

According to her, the ministry usually organise a six-week skills acquisition training for victims to keep them engaged after their discharge from the hospital.

Ibrahim also said that they had undergone training in skills like bead-making, mat-making, leather work and making groundnut oil.

She said that they were also taught food vending, dying, making of locust beans and local spaghetti, soap making, perfume and cosmetics production.

“We give them start kits, depending on the trade they learnt, for those in food vending, we give them sacks of beans, rice, millet, among others.”

The commissioner said the empowerment scheme was to create jobs and promote self-reliance among the victims.

According to her, the training also engages the beneficiaries, eases their psychological trauma and stigmatisation they may experience after discharge from the hospital.

She said the ministry had 40 sewing machines and a number of grinding machines to be distributed to some of the VVF victims.

dimeji akinloye