Having recently signed an Memorandum Of Understanding to continue supporting Internally displaced persons in Lagos & Benue states, Sesor and Grooming Centre, in the wake of the COVID-19 emergency, teamed up to go out and sensitize 89 displaced and economically disadvantaged women on COVID-19.
Grooming generously freed up some cash to enable the women get either N5,000 or N10,000 (amount given was dependent on who was previously on the Grooming-Sesor programme or not) to stock up on food as the city prepared to limit movement and trading activities as part of COVID-19 preventive measures.
Speaking at their Ajah office on Wednesday before heading out to the women’s settlement, Sesor’s Executive Director, Ier Jonathan-Ichaver, said , ‘We had just closed the office on Tuesday afternoon when it slowly dawned on us that our women would need support for food at this time. They depend on daily sales from their small businesses to survive and if movement and business activities slow down, they will have an even tougher time.
While we had planned to give them funds for trade in a few weeks, we realised that if they did not get food now, they would not be in a position to trade later. Many of them make daily profits of between N500 to N1000 from trade so we thought that if we could find some cash for them to go to the market quickly and stock up even if for 10-20 days, we could help them buy time even as we hope the government will unfold other palliative measures in days to come.
We reached out to our partners Grooming Centre and asked them to allow us use some of the partnership funds for this purpose. They agreed and we swung into action immediately. We have our gloves, facemask and glasses so we can go out there. Of course, we have also said our prayers!”
Sesor visited the settlement in the early afternoon and held two COVID-19 awareness sessions in both English and Hausa. More sessions held into the early evening at Sesor’s office in Ajah and continued the following day. The women could only get the cash assistance after participation in an awareness session.
At the end of the two days, 89 women were sensitized in 9 sessions. In some sessions, they watched a video in both Pidgin English and Hausa.
Ms. Jonathan-Ichaver thanked Grooming Centre for their unending support saying “They have always been there for displaced and economically disadvantaged women and their families.
