Establishment of the Eurohostel, where working or studying persons with disability can live at affordable cost



The association works in co-operation with our Friends in Italy, Germany and Switzerland

FREUNDESKREIS ZUR FÖRDERUNG VON ENTWICKLUNGSPROJEKTEN e.V. (FFE) Mit Hauptsitz in Österreich (A-6974 Gaißau, Vorarlberg, AUSTRIA Hauptstr. 51 Tel.: *43 650 3814343 or +43 5578/71567, E-Mail: freundeskreis@vol.at) Bankverbindung: Raiffeisenbank A-6912 Hörbranz, Kto.IBAN: AT02 3743 1000 0605 5859 BIC:RVVGAT2B431
Freundeskreis Nigeria i.d. Eine-Welt-Gruppe Xanten Klaus und Ulla Wolfertz Antonius Str. 6, D-46509 Xanten/BRD Tel. :0049/2801/1353 E-Mail: klaus.wolfertz@kreis-wesel.de Bankverb.:Sparkasse Xanten, Kto. 150 000 505 BLZ 345 500 00	Freundeskreis Miteinander teilen Sr. Gertrud Schweigel Kloster Lanegg; & Helga Andersag (Tel.: +39 7986393) Boznerstr. 26, I- 39011 Lana/Italy Tel: 0039/473/561194 Bankverb.: Raiffeisenkasse Lana Kto. IBAN:IT49PO8115584900001113500; BIC: RZBIT21014
Freundeskreis Nigeria, Schweiz Barbara und Franz Jaeggi Rösernstraße 34; CH- 4402 Frenkendorf/Switzerland Tel: 0041/61/821694 Bankverb.:St Gall. Kantonalbank, Rheineck, Kto IBAN: CH7200781245534142709 BIC: KBSGCH22

Background of the project

About 80% of Nigerian's population of about 120 million person live in the villages. Most of these village neither have running water or electricity. Some villagers are better off. But the villages in Nkanu local government areas of Enugu State, Nigeria are dying in poverty. Even the subsistence agriculture there is no longer functioning. Because of the desperate situation in the villages which forces the youths to migrate into the urban cities, the situation in the villages are getting worse. Many of the youths from the areas see the migration into Europe as asylum-seeker as their only way out. The cheapest and the best method of helping the African asylum-seekers in Europe in the long-run is to help develop some minimal infrastructures in the villages home village. Under the present situation in many of the villages, the people left to suffer the consequence are the village women who have no other alternative than to vegetate in the villages. Many of these women are really strong and industrious. They go any length to earn money to get at least their male children get the basic education in order to escape the calamity of the village life. The female children who are unlucky to get educated join the vicious circle of poverty in the village. Unfortunately the villages, in spite of the population (Ugbawka for example has a population of about 40.000 persons) are too remote to attract the attention of the government. The villages have no form of modern administrative governments at all. Representatives of the villages come together to solve the problems as they come. That was one of the reason why we decided to help the people with the project group, Development Projects Coordination.

The Development projects with positive results

With the financial assistants from the Federal governments of Austria, Germany and the regional governments in Italy and Austria, as well as donations from our members, our association has succeeded in setting up 4 rice and palm products milling centres for the village women in Amurri, Agbani, Ugbawka, Narah, and Nomeh. These governments also contributed in financing the 2 Vocational Centres in Enugu and Agbani which were erected for the Handicapped and jobless youths in the area.

Repair of dilapidating schools

Unfortunately, no agency operates in these villages. The dilapidating primary schools in the area were erected by early Christian missionaries around 1950s. School children whose parents could not pay for the repair of the school were dismissed. Because of the poor situation in the villages, all the youths are escaping into the town. Most of those left in the villages are desperate youths who are unable to escape into the towns, the old people, the handicapped, the sick, the young poorly educated women and their children who are abandoned by their husbands in search of jobs in the towns.

The rice and palm oil mills as a centre of hope

The rice mills as well as the cassava and the palm oil mill which we help the village project groups to set up in Ugbawka, Narah and Nomeh are the major source of income for these women abandoned by their husband in the villages. The mills have become major motivating sources of income for the farmers, especially the women in the villages. With the extra profits the women make, they can then foot the medical bills for their children and pay their school fees. The result as can be seen in the attached pictures speaks for itself. Unfortunately, the husbands of some of these village women stay too long away from their wives in search of jobs in the big cities. This results in the sexual contacts of the husbands with prostitutes through whom AIDS find their way to the innocent wives in the villages. Through the mills we succeeded in helping to motivate the village women to help themselves. Yet we have not yet succeeded in totally stopping the migration of their jobless children into the towns.



The handicapped youths: Vocational training instead of street begging

The major streets in the towns are infested by such handicapped and jobless youths who escaped from their home villages. The handicapped resort to street begging and the jobless youths to crime, drug trafficking and prostitution. The Vocational Centre for Handicapped and jobless youths that we helped to establish in Enugu and Agbani are great successes. Today 562 youths and handicapped persons are learning there. The computer section of the Vocational Centre is one of the most cherished departments. Because of the incessant and daily interruption of electricity, the scholars/apprentices have to spend hours idle. The most successful of the Vocational Centre is the one established in the central village of Agbani. Within two years of its establishment, the Centre attracted the youths back into the villages. Today approximately 420 persons are learning there. Most of them came back from the towns.



The villagers and the projects of Development Projects Co-ordination(DPC)
Like in all the existing projects, the beneficiaries are the villagers, the handicapped persons as well as the jobless youths. All the projects are co-ordinated by the local NGO, the Development Projects Co-ordination
St. Joseph's Institute (Vocational Centre for the Handicapped and Youths), No 20/22 Amaigbo Lane, Enugu, Nigeria.



In the absence of a government structure in most villages, the project centres of DPC have become the centre of development inspiration, medical information and social assistance for the people in the villages.



The Village women and the Handicapped analyse their problem.

Very often, when the village women or the apprentices of the vocational centres are confronted with big social problems, they go to the DPC for assistance. Both parties have to analyse the situation and seek appropriate solution.

With the assistance of the DPC, the various groups in the villages are encourage to use democratic method to seek solutions to their problems. The mills of the DPC are meeting points for these women. Each village group has about 350 women who use the mills constantly. Most of these women are organised in the Christian women organisation that have very good structured leaderships. The Christian women's Associations are subordinate to their parish priests and the parish councils. The women have many times, as individuals, approached the DPC for repayable loans to finance their petty trade trades or their cassava/rice farming ventures. The very bad repayment practice in the poor society make direct lending a dangerous venture. After consultation with the parish councils, the parish priests and the Christian Women Associations, the practice of lending through the associations to the members was introduced with success in 2 villages.



Local artisans and Villagers as worker, DPC as monitor and Manager

It is the policies of our organisation to encourage the local artisans build their projects themselves. In setting up physical projects, we always insist that all the materials and technical job that can be purchase in Nigeria must be purchased locally. The villagers must put in their part in form of manual work. They must see the project as an answer to their request. This is why the people identify themselves with the projects.
As we already mentioned, we rely on the generosity of the public in order to be able to execute these projects. We shall be grateful for any assistance in this direction.