Ihitte women in Imo embark on self-help projects
From OKEY SAMPSON, Aba
Wednesday, November 23 , 2011



More Stories on This Section

For Ihitte women in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State, development of the town should not be left only in the hands of their husbands.
Therefore, each year, women from the area return from wherever they are to embark on one development project or another to help transform the community and also make life more meaningful, particularly for the womenfolk.
In the last seven years, this has become an annual ritual but last August, when they came home for the now popular August meeting, they unveiled the numerous projects they would like to execute, which they believed would not only add to the aesthetics of the community but would also enhance the economic well-being of the rural women.

The President of Ihitte Women General Congress, Mrs. Ngozi Goddy-Egbuchulam, threw more light on the women’s plans for the community in the next one year, which she said would impact positively on the people.
Speaking on the theme, “Ihitte must be better,” which was culled from Governor Rochas Okroacha’s rescue mission statement, “Imo must be better,” she emphasised on what the women would do in the coming year to enhance the socio-economic growth of the community.
One of the landmark projects the women would embark on, she said, was the community’s hall, which would gulp N200 million.

The menfolk were not aloof in this project. Apart from their donating money as requested by their wives to show solidarity and support, their traditional ruler, HRH (Eze) G.C Duru donated a parcel of land for the hall project, a benevolence the women applauded.
The community’s health centre, the women also promised to fully equip in order to attract more patronage from the people of the area.
If the women of Ihitte were happy over the hall and health centre projects as enunciated by their president, they were the more elated for yet another set of projects which would have direct bearing on their economic and social well-being.

The women were overwhelmed with joy when their president announced the formation of a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), which a committee was inaugurated to facilitate its registration.
The major aim of the organization when finally in place would be to reach out to the less privileged which women from the area would expectedly be in the front list.

Out side the NGO, the women of Ihitte had already started to enjoy a revolving loan scheme which was initiated by their president who made a personal donation of N50, 000.
The loan as made known by Mrs. Goddy-Egbuchulam which was made available to co-operative farmers and petty traders was for women in the five towns that made up the community.
With the free interest loan facility, the affected women would have been economically empowered as others await their turn by this time next year.

In empowering her members, the women of Ihitte are looking beyond the four walls of the community. The women through their leadership are involved in the FADAMA 2 project.
“Predominantly, we farm cassava, but we intend to make them diversify into vegetables like okro and pumpkin leaf. Already 10 people have registered under Ihitte Women Congress and we have about 1,005 members. We expect to get a fund of N5 million from Fadama 2 when we pay up our counterpart fund,” Mrs. Goddy-Egbuchulam explained.

The essence of the August meeting to the community, the Treasurer of the congress and a lecturer in the department of Public Administration, Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Mrs. Nnenne Ugorji said: “Igbos are known for self-help projects, we don’t wait for government to do things for us and that is what we want to inculcate in our women so that we can pool our resources together and develop our community. We want to continue with self-help projects which the Igbo are known for.

“Most communities are almost in turmoil, but we are trying to bring the people together because you know that without peace there won’t be development. We want to create a sense of unity among us and that was why we came together to develop our community”.
While enjoining the women to always come home to identify with developmental projects in their communities, she was not so happy with the men folk.

“I don’t really know what is happening to our men. In most communities, you will find out that the men are quarreling. It is either they are quarreling over chieftaincy title or Ezeship title and lose sight of development. Nobody wants to render service; we are just quarreling over things that are inconsequential,” she said. Indeed, the women in unison believed the menfolk had not fared too well in the development of the community at large, which made them to take enduring steps to excel where their husbands had failed, thus they see the August meeting as a veritable avenue of achieving their heart desire.
http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/nov/23/national-23-11-2011-0020.html