NGO Supports Rural Communities in Nigeria’s Capital

Adoba Echono, Abuja.

On Jan 2, 2024

In the spirit of the New Year celebration, an Abuja-based non-governmental organization (NGO), Zoe’s Flower-The Foundation, has reached out to vulnerable persons in Durumi 2, a rural community located in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria.

The foundation distributed clothing and money as part of activities to mark the New Year in an outreach and empowerment programme for vulnerable women and children in rural communities.

The NGO also donated food items, including rice, spaghetti, noodles, tomato paste, and different kinds of seasonings, among others, to the inhabitants.

The founder of Zoe’s Flower-The Foundation, Mrs Uchenna Duru-Nwaotule, revealed that vulnerable women and children had benefited from the foundation since its inception over ten years ago.

Mrs. Duru-Nwaotule also used the forum to state that besides the outreach programme, the foundation had redesigned its programmes to focus more on skills acquisition, training and empowerment.

Mrs Duru-Nwaotule described Zoe’s Flower-The Foundation as a development organization working with vulnerable communities in Nigeria to end extreme poverty.

“We aim to aid the vulnerable girl child and women to achieve their full potential, live productive lives, and make an impact in the world. We aspire to eliminate the injustice of poverty and give the vulnerable a chance at living.

We are here this New Year Day to do our usual annual outreach programme for the vulnerable, especially for women and the girl child in the FCT.

It has been our tradition to seize every opportunity and occasion to put smiles on the faces of the less privileged, especially women,” she said.

Skills Acquisition

Mrs Duru-Nwaotule explained that the foundation’s major focus is training women and girls in different skills and sharing gifts of food and clothes in view of the season to give them a sense of belonging and to celebrate the New Year with joy.

“We at Zoe’s Flower-The Foundation have decided to focus more on skills acquisition programmes and empowerment of the vulnerable.

It is a foundation set up over ten years ago. It was occasioned by the bad experiences I had with a caregiver that I entrusted my daughter with, who almost killed her. So, that gave me the idea to set up something, a platform that will help particularly baby girls.

Our focus is on the girl child, but we have expanded our focus since then to include issues that concern women. So, we work to empower women, especially rural women.

We are trying to empower beneficiaries economically, educationally, and vocationally so they can be who God has ordained them to be,” she said.

She stated that the foundation also empowers youths, both male and female, with programmes designed to attend to their specific needs for empowerment.

Worried by the increasing rate of poverty in the country, Zoe’s Flower-The Foundation (ZFTF) has also embarked on a monthly skills acquisition programme to empower over one million (1,000,000) Nigerians nationwide.

Adopt-a-School Initiative

The foundation also focuses on education with a project known as the Adopt-a-School Initiative.

“We work with a few public schools in the FCT and in my hometown in Imo State, South-east Nigeria, but we are largely focused on the FCT since I reside here.

The foundation has decided that every 1st January of every year we will give thanks to God for what He has used us to do in the past year. We use the opportunity to thank God and celebrate with rural communities,” Mrs Duru-Nwaotule stated.

The Head of Durumi 2 Community, Chief Danjuma Tanko Anyidadubo, commended the foundation for their support to the community.

He acknowledged the immense contribution of the foundation to the development of the girl child and other citizens in his community, appreciating the foundation’s support to other neighbouring communities.

One of the beneficiaries, Dorathy, with so much excitement, said Zoe Flower-The Foundation’s support on the first day of the year 2024 was more than she had hoped for.

Another beneficiary, Victory Timothy, said it was her first time to receive such gifts on New Year’s Day.

For Angela Sunday, what she got from the foundation was the best New Year gift she had ever got.

There was a lot to eat and drink as well as fun activities for both young and old.

There were different prizes for winners and runners-up of the various competitions.

As part of its humanitarian gesture, the foundation also visited some hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory, and various patients were given cash gifts for feeding and upkeep.