CAIMAT Trains, empowers 450 youth to curb irregular migration

From Chris Akhabue

Creation of Alternatives to Irregular Migration and Trafficking (CAIMAT), a non governmental organisation based in Benin City, the Edo state vapital, has trained and empowered  four hundred and fifty youths in Benin City and its environ in skills acquisition and other vocational training programs.

This was disclosed yesterday in a press briefing  in his Benin City office,by the Project Director, Saliu B.Aidorolo.

According to him, the European Union Project through the British Council in Nigeria is implemented in Edo state by four Civil Society Organisation with the aim of providing alternative means of access to   socio-economic alternatives to irregular migration.

" This Project is a European Union funded intervention project through the British Council in Nigeria under the Agent for Citizens-Driven Transformation (ACT) programme. 

"This project is implemented in Edo state by a consortium of four Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) led by Ideal Development and Resource Centre (IDRC). The Other partners are Bethshan Youth Organisation, Initiative for Disability Empowerment with Accessibility & Support and the Edo state Children Protection Network. 

According to him, "CAIMAT project seeks to create a condition or situation where young people in Benin in Edo State, can increase access to socio-economic alternatives to irregular migration and are empowered to make good choices.

He further stated that the project has recorded commendable measure of success due to the realization of the three expected results.

"The success of the project depended on the realization of the three Expected Results,

Creating Economic Alternatives: The project worked to equip 450 potential migrants in Benin with the necessary capacities and means to start-up income-generating cooperatives (15 beneficiaries per cooperatives in a total of 30 cooperatives groups).

" The project will continue to monitor the cooperatives and will support them to make them economically sustainable and progressively become an added value to their communities.

" The project aimed at increasing awareness on the risks linked to irregular migration, with a specific focus on sexual reproductive health and rights aspects, on the available alternatives and of the real conditions in the country of arrival, through sensitisation, both media and community-based. 

He said that the specific target of the organisation include young people in secondary schools who happens to be the target of traffickers,religion and community leaders, women associations, Parents/ teachers  associations as well as  government agencies through strategic trainings. 

"Specific targets of the project will be young people in secondary schools, who are often targeted by recruiters and traffickers, and key influencing members in the target communities, including: religious and community leaders, women associations, and parents-teachers associations.

" The project will strengthen capacities of government agencies through  strategic training pathway and continuous staff support, responding to the chronic institutional weakness on migration management.

To further consolidate on the measure of success recorded so far, he expressed the desire to establish  technical need assessment to be conducted in six ministries.

 

"A Technical Needs Assessment (TNA) will be conducted on six government ministries/agencies (with NAPTIP being one of them) in Edo state whose mandate has to do with the response to Irregular Migration and Human Trafficking.  This will involve  capacity assessment of selected MDAs relevant to Migration response in Edo state, and also the development of a training manual to fill the capacity gaps identified.

 As part of effort to ensure the objective of the organisation is achieved, he said, "a dialogue platform was created between civil society, cooperatives of potential migrants and returnees, authorities and private sector, to promote an open and transparent dialogue and create strong synergies that will impact on the society. By working with the government institutions and through the development of ad-hoc capacity of the relevant government officers, the project is ensuring gradual monitoring and strengthening, paving the way for the adoption of good practices in migration management. Finally, the creation of a platform has contributed to reducing the communication gap which is currently mining the trust in authorities: this will help the government to tailor further its actions to manage migration issues and support the full socio-economic development of youths in the project location and the state", he concluded.