They all gathered at the community primary school situated at the edge of the community awaiting their guests for the day. As they squatted under the big mango tree which shaded the school premises, the women among the now burgeoning Kompanin Kutare, a transit settlement inhabited by the former patients of the Minna Referral Leprosy hospital, busy themselves extricating egusi seeds from their shells.
The egusi (melon) seed business is fast becoming synonymous with the womenfolk in a community where begging was the main preoccupation before the intervention of the Niger State Community and Social Development Project which provided supports grant to the vulnerable people in the rural areas. Mrs Naomi Musa, the chairperson of the women group said their condition turned them into destitution with no means of livelihood excerpt begging for alms. “Begging as an ex leprosy patient can be humiliating especially with the stigmatization. A few people who are willing to even part with the alms will try to avoid personal contact with you but today we have means of livelihood which is earning us respect from the society,” she explained.
She said the egusi initiative is funded from the Keke (tricycle) empowerment initiative supported by the CSDP. According to her, the Agency initially provided fund for five tricycles for the leprosy colony’s cooperative association about two years ago which has yield further profits and expanded investment for the members.
Salisu Jafaru, one of the leaders of the men wing of the cooperative narrated how they came about the empowerment. “It was one Madam Maimuna from Paiko that brought to us the good news of about the intervention for the indigent and vulnerable.
“When we indicated interest, she asked whether we have any self help association in the community because the assistance is only given through such union not on individual basis. When we confirmed to her that we have, she now led us to the people in charge,” he explained.
He said the Agency promised to give the cooperative N10 million if they can provide five percent of the sum. Daily Trust on Sunday learnt that the tricycles were provided as soon as the Community fulfilled its own obligation, while other projects such as water supply and renovations and upgrading of the community primary school facility were undertaken later.
Malam Salisu averred that the community has added two additional tricycles to its fleet from the return on the investment, while also exploring other business options in its expansion plans. “With the balance and what we are saving we bought two more keke this year and hoping to purchase another one after xmas,” he noted.
He gave insight into the community’s saving plan:”In a week we save N15, 000, from each tricycle from which we take care of our needs especially during Sallah and Xmas, because we have both Muslim and Christian worshipers in the community. We buy cows, slaughtered them and share the meat to all the households during those festive periods in addition to meeting other needs.”
He elaborated further, “Another way we are enjoying this intervention is how we share the small profits from Keke after four months. I mean we share the money to ourselves and our women atleast twice in a year. The first four month will be for saving, second will be for sharing and third for deposit. That is what some of us, especially women begin to use as capital to start trading in egushi, some rear goats and sheep etc.” Na’omi and Hajara Suleiman as well as other women of the community now tended to herds of goats and sheds, while others like Sumayya Alkali and Ruth Dogo are prospective chicken farmers.
The Sarkin Kutare, Malam Bello Umar said with the Keke business, the community has also become employer of labour. “Most of those riding the tricycles are engaged from elsewhere and not our members. So we are contributing to the economy and also reducing the unemployment rate,” he pointed out.
According to him, in addition to the tricycles initiative, CSDP also renovated a block of two-classrooms with furniture as well as toilet facility at the colony’s primary school and laying pipe to enhance water supply to the settlement.
Like the Kompanin Kutare, the people of Hamdallahi community in Lapai local government area of the state share their experiences of how the establishment of a Nomadic Primary school is impacting on the lives of their children and wards. The one block of three classrooms along with headmaster’s office with furniture, teaching and learning aides were among the micro-projects initiated by the CSDP in the community. Others were town hall where meetings and social activities are held and a two-ward clinic which boasts of a maternity, drugs section, health workers office complete with equipment.
An elder in the community, Alhaji Ibrahim Modibbo Hamdallahi agreed that the three projects were critical to their existence. He said the gesture has saved the locals of having to cover 40 kilometers to Lapai, the headquarters of the Council to access Medicare and basic education. “Before now, there was no healthcare facility in this community, it was a big challenge. We often loss our wives on transit to hospitals in Lapai while they were in labour.
“We also believe knowledge is an important aspect of life and we now have a school, a block of three class room and head teachers office, which we are now using to teach our children Islamic and western education combined,” he stated.
He however, appealed to the state government and the Agency to save the key road linking the community to Lapai and the main bridge from total collapse. “As you can bear witness, more than half of the road has given way from the bridge section because of erosion. Please CSDP and state government save us from being cut away completely. With the current situation of the road, we cannot bring in some materials that we needed to continue executing some other projects we planned in the community. We already contributed money to purchase some items to continue the construction of our new central mosque but we are tied down by this problem,” he pleaded.
CSDP according to the General Manager, Alhaji Yusuf Ahmed Usman is intervening in 30 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). He explained that the gestures were culminations of a tripartite agreement between the Bank, Federal and States governments to support provision of infrastructural services to the rural poor in the area of rural roads network; provision of portable drinking water to curb the prevalence of preventable diseases; health care facilities to improve the living standards of the people and to reduce maternal and child mortality rate; rural electrification to enhance the socioeconomic standard of the rural poor; provision of block of classrooms to increase enrolment and curb illiteracy among people as well as the provision of skill acquisition centers to reduce youth restiveness and poverty and also the support to the vulnerable group which provide business support grants to empower the vulnerable and the physically challenged in a sustainable manner.
He said the Agency has provided such supports to hundreds of communities across all the 25 local government areas of Niger state.
Daily Trust on Sunday learnt that the choice of projects of need is made by the communities’ members themselves through what the CSDP referred to as the Community Project Management Committee (CPMC). “CSDP support and encouraged bottom top approach to solving development problems”, Usman explained, adding the selection of the prioritized Micro projects was done by a benefiting community during the participatory “Rural Appraisal” spearheaded by staff of the Agency where the entire Community participated and select their Prioritized MPs, elected the CPMCs who are now overseeing the implementation of the entire micro projects in the Community Development Plan (CDP).
Aside the committee, he also explained that benefiting communities are also encouraged to provide what is referred to as “Community Contribution (CC)” to projects which include sharp sand, gravels and water amongst others. He said by so doing benefiting communities would monitor all projects cited in their areas to ensure quality jobs for sustainability and ownership.
