The Nigerian Air Force Officers Wives Association (NAFOWA), has been training widows of deceased Air Force personnel and youths in different skills.
The training programme commenced on June 20 with 165 participants.
Most of the trainees were those whose husbands or parents died while fighting insurgents in the northeast region of Nigeria. The rest were from the barracks and host communities.
They were trained in tailoring, beads making, shoe making, ICT, catering, hairdressing, barbing among others skills.
The participants also received starter packs to enable them become successful in their chosen career.
Speaking during the graduation ceremony of the trainees at the Air Force base in Kaduna state, President of the association and wife of the Chief of Air Staff, Mrs Hafsat Abubakar, said that the training programme was to compliment the federal government’s effort in tackling unemployment and youth restiveness in the country.
She explained that the programme was designed to help build entrepreneurial skills among youths and women in the barracks, with a view to making them self-sufficient and useful to the society.
According to her, the current decline of the Nigerian economy makes it necessary for women and youths not to rely solely on white collar jobs, but to look for alternative sources of engaging themselves meaningfully through capacity building and skill acquisition.
Wife of the governor of Kaduna state, Mrs Hadiza El-Rufai, commended NAFOWA for initiating the training programme which she said would add immense value to the empowerment of youths and indigent women in the state.
She urged the beneficiaries to make use of the opportunity and develop themselves.
The Chief of Air Staff, who was represented by the Chief of Administration, Nigerian Air Force headquarters, Air Vice Marshal Ajibola Jekenu, also commended NAFOWA.
He said that the service had also initiated some programmes aimed at touching the lives of indigent persons in the barracks and host communities.
Some of the beneficiaries expressed optimism that the training they have received would help them in becoming self-reliant and better equipped to support their families.