 |
| Group photograph of community development officers (credit: esther okoi) |
Esther Okoi|18 June 2018
In preparation for the commencement of the Validation, Biometric Data Capturing and Orientation of 5000 mined beneficiaries for the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO) World Bank intervention, the Cross River State Public Workfare (PWF) has conducted a step down Orientation Training for Community Development Officers (CDOs) of Eleven (11) Local Government Areas selected for the first phase of the intervention project.
The training which was held at the Conference Room of the State Ministry of Youth and Sports Development was aimed at training the CDOs on the objectives of the Project and the modus operandi, with expectations that they will in turn pass on the training to the beneficiaries through the various Community Focal Persons.
Addressing the CDOs, the Cross River YESSO Coordinator, Mr. Balinwo Ofegobi admonished them to stand up firmly in protecting the needs of their various communities and not compromise in any aspect throughout the project, promising them of every needed assistance through the Head of the PWF Unit as the need arises.
The State Project Coordinator, represented by Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, State Operating Coordinating Unit, Mr. Richard Edu called on the CDOs to encourage beneficiaries to come out en-masse and be cooperative with the respective groups during the Orientation exercise and the engagement proper, stating that the project is targeted at the poor and vulnerable in their communities who should be accorded every necessary information to effectively participate and utilize the Project.
In his opening remarks, the head of Unit, PWF, Mr. Ojen Ignatius explained that the step down training of CDOs is important as it enables them to know the rights of beneficiaries as liaison officers between the Communities and the Unit, stating that after the orientation exercise, the bank comes up with cleared beneficiaries for deployment.
Mr. Ojen informed that as against the original plan of during the Validation, Biometric Data Capturing and Orientation of beneficiaries in the eleven Local Government Areas, recent developments have provided that mined beneficiaries from first four LGAs after their Orientation exercise would be deployed, to ensure that by the end of July, they would get their fist stipends.
He added that it is expected that beneficiaries must have worked for 20 days in the month for not more than four hours daily to be qualified for their monthly stipends.
The training module as explained by Mr. Ojen, contained every details about Public Workfare; deployment of beneficiaries; rights and responsibilities of beneficiaries; stipends payment to beneficiaries; conditions for payment of stipends; monitoring and evaluation of Public Workfare activities; conflict resolution; and duration, exit strategy and rules of exit of PWF.
The training featured questions and answers as well as an x-raying of peculiar challenges of beneficiaries from some LGAs and solutions were proffered for effective implementation of the programme.
Okoi
Writes from Calabar
