Louisa, a tailor and clothes designer, is a member of a tailors association in Nigeria’s Cross River State that benefits from one of our women’s business centres, where members are able to access financial support to grow their enterprises.
We recently celebrated 25 years of working in Nigeria to improve the wellbeing and lives of vulnerable communities.
Nigeria is Africa’s richest, and most populous country, yet 40 per cent of people here live in poverty. In rural areas, more than 80 per cent are poor, with most living in villages on small farms.
For 25 years, as United Purpose, and before that Concern Universal, we - now a part of Self Help Africa - have been working to improve the lives of people living in remote rural areas of Nigeria.
We’re working with small-scale farming households to grow more and earn more from their land. We also work with local government and other agencies to improve services, including clean water and sanitation. Our work in rural water and sanitation has won awards. More importantly, this work has provided vital services to more than 2 million people.
It's much needed, particularly in a country where less than a third of every household has access to a safe, clean supply of water.
The absence of basic toilets and sanitation inevitably leads to high levels of preventable disease and high infant mortality.
That’s why we’re proud to have worked with the Government to achieve Nigeria’s first open-defecation free local government area. Several other areas have since followed suit – a vital boost for community health.
More recently, through our women’s business centres, rural women like Louisa Ashakia (pictured) are increasing their income and business skills
As we celebrated this milestone anniversary in Abuja earlier this month with our partners – with an event attended by the Minister of State for Water Resources & Sanitation, Bello Muhammad Goronyo, and the Senior Health adviser at Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, Dave McConalogue – we also looked to the future, taking the opportunity to unveil the £5 million WASH System for Health programme, funded by the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, which will focus on strengthening WASH systems in Nigeria during the next three years.
Here’s to many more years of working in partnership with the authorities and communities of Nigeria for lasting change!