Residents of Kabusa community, a satellite town in Abuja have commended MAWA Foundation for empowering them through human rights education training and community mobilizing for advocacy.
The residents said Housing Rights training conducted by MAWA Foundation empowered them for unified voices to confront the authority and present superior arguments that compelled the government to discard its plan of the demolition of their community.
Mr. Peter Shima, one of the community leaders, during the Housing Right training review meeting, said what communities need from NGOs and development partners are training that can empower residents for influential voices to demand accountability from the government.
Shima said before the MAWA Foundation training, they do not believe that residents can have unified voices that will force the government to change its policies and decision against the people.
Mrs. Victoria Uloko, while explaining how they have been empowered through the MAWA Foundation training, said community key agents who benefitted from the training have since formed cells of 10 persons whom they are now teaching and empowering on housing rights.
They, however, appealed to the MAWA Foundation to extend the Housing Rights training to other rural communities, pointing out that the only way to liberate the people is to empower them through knowledge and training.
MAWA Foundation had in the month of December conducted three days of training on Housing Rights in the community.
Training the community residents say has empowered and liberated them by giving them the required knowledge to challenge the authority on why their houses cannot be demolished and be forcefully evicted.