Our Strategic Goal is:

Support programmes that improve livelihood for Widows, other vulnerable women, orphans and Youths in Cross River State

Livelihoods are the means that enable people to earn a living. This includes the capabilities, assets, income and activities people require in order to ensure that their basic needs are covered. A livelihood is sustainable when it allows people to cope with, and recover from setbacks and stress (such as natural disasters and economic or social upheavals), and improve their welfare and that of future generations without degrading the environment or natural resources base.

OUR AREA OF FOCUS AND INTERVENTION

• Provide vocational skills training for 23,000 Youths, Widows and other vulnerable women from three senatorial districts in Cross River State and beyond.
• Support MDAs to strengthen Coordination and interventions addressing the needs of OVC’s in the State

Our Response

Mediatrix Development Foundation has engaged in partnerships with national and international Non‐governmental Organizations (NGOs) while expanding its own capacities to deliver directly where no partners operate or where partners lack appropriate technical capacities. Technical services of the Government and Non-governmental Organizations are also being supported by Mediatrix Development Foundation to ensure economic support is sustainable and inclusive while ensuring individuals have adequate skills by training and capacity building to access available livelihood opportunities, and that markets are able to offer decent employment or self-employment opportunities for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled individuals. Inclusive economic opportunities mean that they should be in the sectors in which the poor work (e.g. agriculture); occur in places where the poor life (e.g. undeveloped areas with few resources); use the factors of production that the poor possess (e.g. unskilled labour); and reduce the prices of consumer items that the poor consume (e.g. food, fuel and clothing).

The standard activities under this thematic area include:

• Supporting technical and vocational education and training (TVET);
• Stimulating entrepreneurship, incl. business advisory and financial services and advocating for an enabling business environment;
• Promoting a safe and dignified work environment (“decent work”)
• Value chain approaches, particularly in the informal sector in urban and peri-urban settings as well to help poor farmers to increase their production, capture market opportunities, obtain fair deals, and produce higher-quality products;
• Facilitating access to affordable credit and financial services (small grants)
• Support OVC Programmes;
• Awareness raising and protection activities for potential economic migrants;
• Supporting subsistence-based farmers to transform into market-based small-scale producers, e.g. by promoting production techniques and approaches that sustainably increase yields;
• Food and nutrition assistance;
• Distribution of Non-Food Relief Items (NFRIs);
• Provision of/improving access to safe drinking water, adequate hygiene facilities and promotion of good hygiene practices;
• Protection activities, for example, child and women-friendly spaces, case management, gender-based violence (GBV) prevention;
• Support to refugees and Internally Displace People (IDP) camp
• Promoting household food security and nutrition literacy for a balanced and nutritious diet;
• Restoring livelihoods and fostering self-reliance through household economy approach;
• Protection of livelihood assets.