CASE STORY ONE

LIBERATED FROM IGNORANCE

Mrs. Augustina Okonkwo is from Amofia-Agu Affa community, a mother of six children and aged 53 years said that DEC has delivered her from an age long ignorance and neglect. According to her, the father Mr. Odoh Ignatius refused to send her and the younger sister Rita to school on the believe that training her and the sister is a waste of resources and time even though she has good passion for education. Her dream to become educated was cut short when she was forced into marriage by the parents

“I soon began to have children and other family problems never allowed me to go to school even when education was made free by the military government of Olushegun Obasanjo and the civilian government of Shehu Shagari between 1976 to 1983. My village Amofia-Agu did not help issues for me as majority of our customs and traditions then did not give women any opportunity to ask and determine what they wanted.”

However, sign of relief came when her community Affa embraced DEC Programme in 2008. DEC came with Programmes on Education, Health, Women Empowerment, Micro Credit and Community Development.

Mrs Augustina showed interest to achieve her age long dream of becoming literate by enrolling immediately in the adult literacy programme for women in the community organized by DEC Enugu. She was highly encouraged by her children who according her help in guiding her to carry out her take home assignments.

As a beginner, she said “I can now read, write the alphabets, read and write my name, identify dates and count and calculate numbers which has helped me in my small trade business”

Mrs. Augustina is happy with DEC and hopes to go further in education with the assistance of Development Education Centre Literacy Class in her Community.

CASE STORY TWO
IMPROVED LIVING CONDITION

“My foodstuff business suffered serious set backs when I have not known DEC Programme. Many a time, I give people balance that is not correct and at other times refuse to sell my goods because I do not know how much to be given as balance if the buyer paid for his or her good in one thousand and or five hundred naira denominational notes”

This was the submission of Mrs. Achi Francisca , a mother of four children and a widow living at Ndeabor community. She joined DEC organized Adult Literacy Class in 2009 with the hope of improving her numaracy and calculation skills which according to her was her major need from the literacy class.
Mrs. Achi was introduced into the foodstuff business by the late husband who was always at hand to help in proveding help when it comes to calculating customers fee and also given balances. But the stage changed when the husband died and the responsibility of carrying the business forward were now bestowed on her. Her inability to withstand the demand of her customers and her problem of being afraid of giving incorrect balance account made her to loose some of her customers to others.

However, the story is different today as she can now calculate and is able to identify the difference between five hundred naira and one thousand naira notes.

”I carry to market my counting box to enable me give accurate balance to my customers. Although it has not been easy because I am laughed at by some people especially in the market but what I am gaining now is that my business s strong and is doing well thanks to Development Education Centre for bringing the literacy programme to my community”

CASE STORY THREE
WORKING FOR CHANGE
Our community has not had it easy before with the menace of the Fulani cattle rearers  in terms of embracing the culture of protecting another persons property. says Mrs. Oleh Cecilia the Mobilizer of Akwu-Achi community

The Fulani cattle rearers that live our community has been using their cattle to destroy our farm product not remembering that the farm product is our main source of income.

But the mobilization strategy and skills learnt from DEC Enugu helped me and the other women leaders in the community to mobilize the entire women in the community to carry out protest match to the local government chairman of Oji river to complain of our dissatisfaction on the approach to and behaviour of the Fulani people on our source of income.

The chairman who saw the level of grievances on the faces of women quickly moved into action and called on the leaders of the Fulani community in Akwu Achi to redress the situation.

Today the story is different and they now respect other persons source of income and knowledge of coming together to discuss issue that affect them and the harboring community.

Thanks to the trainings and teaching of DEC on the best ways of using the women critical mass approach to demanding and protecting women’s human rights.

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Below are the Progress reports of DEC Social Services:

Community Development

Health Education Advocacy

Democracy and Governance (D&G)

Adult Literacy

Skill Acquisition