Dr. Eris Jewo is the CEO of Working Fingers International Initiative (WOFII), a non-governmental organization in Asaba, Delta State focused on health, agriculture, peace, environment and sanitation and areas affecting Government and Gender. She is also the President of Working Fingers Multipurpose Cooperative Society and the Coordinator, Ending Female Genital Mutilation Network. She believes in the promotion of women and children’s rights, with a personal slogan reading, ‘Together, we are better’.

Dr. Eris attended a Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) training in 2014 and says, ‘I became more focused in my NGO work after attending the training’. She went on to attend PIND’s International Women’s Day 2016 event in Asaba, Delta state; an event titled[b] ‘’Pledge for Parity: Support women in Agriculture in the Niger Delta.” [/b]The event drew participants from the academia, the private sector, financial institutions, stakeholders in agriculture, partners of PIND, policy makers and influencers, as well as the women involved in agriculture in the Niger Delta.

She expressed her excitement at being at the event. “One key takeaway for Working Fingers Initiative International (WOFII) from the International Women’s Day Forum in Asaba is that women can earn decent living from farming activities and women can engage in big time farming. With this realization, after the Forum, WOFII leadership decided to rent ponds at Ugboroke Fish Farm and Area 74 Fish Farms…some personal homes will be used too. It was also agreed there and then to rent a 15 acre land at the Abraka Reserve Farm Land. We have done these. The fifteen acre we leased at Abraka, WOFI has only been able to plant six acres with all our resources pulled together. We have bought a bike to reduce cost of moving helpers to farm. The society has opened account with Bank of Agriculture at Asaba and Ughelli, though we have not received any loan from them yet. During the inspection of our farms, because of our partnership with PIND to organize the IWD Forum, we were well treated and recognized by the Delta State Ministry of Agriculture’’

PIND ensures that women are mainstreamed in all its programs because PIND believes empowering women and men in the Niger Delta advances the economic development of the region.

Here are details through which you can contact Dr. Eris Jewo;

Organization: Working Fingers International Initiative

Address: 29 Ogagifo Street, off DBS Road, Core Area, Asaba. Delta State.

Email: Workingfingersinternational@gmail.com.

Website: www.workingfingers.org.

For similarly inspiring stories of women doing great things in the Niger Delta, click this link http://pindfoundation.org/pinds-iwd-forum-inspires-action-for-women/.