As part of the activities to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty for 2022-2023, the National Association of Seadogs, popularly known as the Pyrates Confraternity, Katamaran Deck, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State and the Hiroshima Deck comprising Japan and Australia, has empowered some less privileged artisans in the Ijebu-Ode area with various work tools of their different trades.
Both Katamaran and Hiroshima Decks of the Pyrates’ Confraternity located in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria and Japan as well as Australia, respectively, collaborated to empower the struggling artisans and traders in the Ijebu-Ode area with basic tools such as pepper grinding machines, sewing machines, barber’s clippers and so on.
Both Katamaran and Hiroshima Decks were at Imomo, an outskirts of Ijebu North East Local Government Area, where they presented a pepper grinding machine to Mrs Victoria Ogunyemi, a widow who had to abandon her pepper grinding trade due to paucity of fund.
At Ijebu Ife in Ijebu East Local Government Area, Katamaran Deck partnered with the Hiroshima Deck to present a hair clipper to Ogunye Iyanu, a young boy who has completed his training programme, but his parents yet to complete the fee for his apprenticeship owing to lack of fund.
Still at Ijebu Ife, the Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government Area, Hon Wale Adedayo, who is also a member of the Pyrates Confraternity, traced the team to the venue of the presentation, where he promised complete the fee for Ogunye’s training, sponsor his graduation and rent a shop for him to practice his trade and earn a living.
Furthermore, at Ijebu Ife, Ijebu East Local Government Area, Katamaran Deck in collaboration with Hiroshima Deck presented a sewing machine to Miss Zainab, a teenager who dropped out of school to learn a trade because her parents could not continue to fund her education and even after her completion of her apprenticeship, she had nobody to offer her assistance.
The gestures by both Katamaran and Hiroshima Decks were also extended to the Remo axis of Ogun State, where many indigent artisans also benefitted from the Pyrates Confraternity empowerment programme.
Speaking on the gesture, Capoon of the Katamaran Deck comprising Ijebu and Remo lands with secretariat in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Mr Olumide Fagbohunka, said the tools would assist the beneficiaries in their businesses and trade.
He said that the beneficiaries were small scale artisans within the Ijebu community having financial difficulties in buying the tools to enable them to practise the trade they’ve learnt to earn a living.
Fagbohunka added that the beneficiaries were selected at random, without any bias or favouritism and briefly interviewed to determine their suitability for the gesture.
Commenting on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty for 2022-2023, the Katamaran Deck Capoon noted in a statement that government at all levels and privileged individuals must empathise with the less privileged who are the usual victims of poverty in the society.
This year’s World Poverty Eradication Day holds on Monday, October 17, 2022. It’s a United Nations day for raising awareness and proffering solutions to the global poverty situation. “Dignity for All in Practice” is this year’s theme highlighting the commitment to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure all people everywhere enjoy peace and prosperity.
Fagbohunka, however, noted that the Katamaran Deck in partnership with Hiroshima Deck sought to utilise this year’s commemoration of the World’s Poverty Eradication Day to increase sensitisation in addition to empowering small scale business owners and artisans in the Ijebu-Ode axis of Ogun State.
“It is our expectations that in our own little way, more citizens will be more informed about poverty and especially of others, which inadvertently affect their own peace and security as well as national security,” he stated.
He described endemic poverty ravaging millions of people across the world as a “moral outrage.”
Fagbohunka added that the phenomenon of poverty is a multi-dimensional societal problem that must be tackled with a view to preserving the dignity of all of humanity
According to him, “In a world characterised by an unprecedented level of economic development, technological means and financial resources, that millions of persons are living in extreme poverty is a moral outrage.
“Poverty is not solely an economic issue, but rather a multidimensional phenomenon that encompasses a lack of both of income and the basic capabilities to live in dignity.
“Persons living in poverty experience interrelated and mutually reinforcing deprivations that prevent them from realising their rights and perpetuate their poverty, including lack of nutritious food, unequal access to justice, lack of political power, limited access to health care.
“Ending poverty is not just helping the poor. It is giving every woman and man the chance to live with dignity. By eradicating poverty, all humanity will be transformed.”