Stepping Stones Nigeria Child Empowerment Foundation (SSNCEF), an NGO, has embarked on a capacity building programme to equip indigent widows with income generating schemes.

Its Advocacy Officer, Mr Edjo Okonubin,  at Eket in Akwa Ibom State said that the training was part of the organisation’s programmes to reduce the incidence of child abandonment in the state.

Okonubin said that SSNCEF focused on children and family issues based in Eket, and was engaged in the support of vulnerable,  disadvantaged and abandoned children.

The officer said that more than 50 persons had so far benefitted from the training programme on confectionaries, including making of meat pie, chin chin, cake, egg rolls, sausage roll and other snacks.

Okonubin said that if the indigent widows were economically stable, they would be able to sustain and support their families.

The NGO boss said that at the end of the training, the participants, who showed exceptional interest would be assisted with a micro-credit facility of N15,000 as start up capital.

The micro-credit facility, he said, was a revolving loan that would be granted to other beneficiaries at the end of a cycle of four months.

“In our work with abandoned children in Akwa Ibom, we have established a link between poverty, stigmatisation and accusation of children as witches.

“The outcome of our research led us to develop a poverty alleviation scheme to economically empower these widows.