By Queen Kunde
The Centre for Law Enforcement Education of Nigeria (CLEEN Foundation), has trained forty women across four selected communities of two Local Government Areas of Taraba State, North Eastern Nigeria.
The training commenced after the organization had completed a Workshop that brought together Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) Stakeholders as well as Security and Law Enforcement Agencies during her Community Accountability Forum (CAF) and Training in Jalingo, the Taraba State Capital.
The forty women who were drawn from Puje, Rafinkada communities in Wukari Local Government and Mutum Biyu, Gunduma communities of Gassol Local Government Areas were exposed to various aspects of conflict analysis, conflict sensitivity/triggers, causes of conflict, the role of drivers and connectors, the effects of conflicts on women and children, their roles and responsibilities, and the use of online medium to report incidences of attacks in their communities.
Addressing participants at the training Programme Manager, CLEEN Foundation, Chigozirim Okoro, utilised real life experiences of women in conflict prone communities, group work and presentations to drive home the point.
Okoro encouraged trainees to step down the lessons from the training to other women in their communities.
She explained that the training was aimed at engaging this forty selected community women in a manner that they would begin to appreciate their roles and contributions in this regard.
The trained women are expected to train other women in their communities as peace builders, advocates and ambassadors.
Okoro who maintained that women are the greatest asset in peace and security and reiterated the imperative of working with them to realize the objectives of the project.
“This is a training of trainers. The women are expected to take key lessons to their various communities. Each of the selected communities is expected to train nighty women in each of the focal communities in addition to the 40 trained by CLEEN Foundation. Our target is to train four hundred women in the focal communities of the project.
“By the time we come again and we are able to train between 300 to 400 women in those communities who really understand and are put into practice all they acquired here, those communities will change and become conducive to live in”, she added.
Participants who spoke to our correspondent shortly after the training, expressed joy that they had acquired new principles that would enable them to contribute positively towards peace building and conflict management in their respective communities.
One of the participants, Mrs. Patience Theophilus of Mutum Biyu Community, Gassol Local Government, commended CLEEN Foundation for coming to their aid at such a crucial time with the desired knowledge and pledged that as soon as they go back home, they would train up other women, who would join them as peace ambassadors in their various communities to contribute their quota towards taming the persistent, unnecessary and unprofitable crises in their community.
On her part, Mrs. Comfort Samuel of Puje community in Wukari Local Government, who also appreciated CLEEN Foundation for considering women for the training. appreciated the lessons from the training also pledged to step it down to other women in their various communities.
“We acquired diverse knowledge in the course of this program. Apart from training us to be peace ambassadors, we have learnt some salient principles that will help us to bring up children that will not constitute nuisance in our various communities but those that will contribute meaningfully to the development of their communities and so we are going to put what we learnt in to practice.
“As soon as we get home, we will ensure that we bring women together through town hall meetings and other fora where we will let them understand that they are stakeholders in the efforts towards peaceful coexistence”. She added.
The Early Warning and Early Response Project of CLEEN Foundation is aimed at reducing attacks in risk communities in Northern Nigeria including Taraba State.