An estimated 1.7 million women and girls of reproductive age have been forcibly displaced in northeastern Nigeria due to a violent insurgency led by fundamentalist extremists. Blessing and Aisha serve in a Women's Empowerment Hub project established by UN Women to help some of those women regain decent life.
UN Community Volunteers Blessing Iyala and Aisha Abdel-Latif are working to empower internally-displaced women from Borno State in Nigeria.
They facilitate informative and sensitization sessions in local languages for the women and girls and manage one-on-one cases for survivors of gender-based violence survivors. So far, over 200 women and girls have benefitted from their support in learning various livelihood skills.
We saw the incredible dynamism and hard work of UN Volunteers during COVID-19. They assisted women affected by the pandemic through advocacy and direct support. We are grateful for their incredible service. --Comfort Lamptey, Representative of UN Women to Nigeria and ECOWAS