MAMA Centre- EM Power Project Mothers <(>&<)> Marginalized Advocacy Center (MAMA Center) Project Summary:

EMPOWER Project is a target led project where the target groups which include aged and female headed indigenous women of the Igbo ethnic group, who are facing exploitation, abuse and violence, approached MAMA Center to seek for technical know-how and linkage to the government in order to attain economic independence.This target group is the first of their kind with request to be trained/groomed with advocacy and mobilization skillsto engage issues concerning their rights in their community.

The mainaim of the Project is to empower women of Ngwo with knowledge, to recognise their rights, get organised, learn how to coordinate ideas to be able to demand from the government of Enugu state social amenities that can empower women. As explained by the women, there have been many interventions on women empowerment levelled at teaching women how to sew clothes, string beads, make soups, etc. but these interventions are never sustainableas they are not only hijacked by young people in the community but arealso not the economic mainstay of the Ngwo women. The main concern of the Ngwo women is to be armed with the necessary tool to improve existing business- palmoil processing.

The EMPOWER Project is an opportunistic intervention in the sense that quite unlike other projects where beneficiaries are approached with interventions, this particular Project is designed by the beneficiaries who requested this intervention. it is aimed at opening up the space for women to understand their full potentials and apply them towards improving their livelihood and socio-political status in the long run. This Project will not only empower the women on how to acquire social amenities from their government but also lay the foundation for women to evolve beyond cultural inhibitions. 30 women from this community with a lead speaker approached MAMA Centre for this intervention, although the main target is up to 100 women benefiting from the Project. Thisisa pilot stage and will be cascaded to reach more women.

EMPOWER Projectwill work with women of similar interests in agriculture with specific focus on palm oil production. It will further proceed with stakeholder mapping, levelled at identifying relevant stakeholders, key influencers within the state that can influencepolicies and bring about desired change. There will be an advocacy/campaign strategy that will be developed to be used as a tool for training the women. The women will then be trained onseveral ways to organize themselves, mobilize, coordinate and advocate to those in authorityto facilitate provision of mechanized equipment used in extracting palm-oil. The normal practise is harvested palm-fruits are crudely processed through the verytedious process of matching with feet or pounding with mortar and pestle to extract oil. This tedious process of course hinders massive production of palm-oil which will in-turn enrich these women.

The Project is not seeking to supplythe women with an equipment for processing/extracting palm oil but wants to teach themhow to get their elected and appointed legislators and executives to provide the equipment. In effect, the EMPOWER Project will equip the women with skills and capacity, linkingthemupwithmembers of the executive and legislative arms