Our Programs
What We Do
IRAID runs programs focused on long-term, sustainable change: community development projects, women and youth economic programs, health outreach, agricultural training and education for change.
Community Development
Our Approach to Community Development
Our community development activities usually begins with community engagement followed by needs assessment as can be seen in the Doods Methodist NEWMAP site communities in the Nigerian erosion & watershed management project (World Bank assisted Abia NEWMAP) (2018).
To achieve desired outcomes and impacts on beneficiaries and communities affected by erosion and land degradation, NEWMAP is structured to start its intervention by conducting a baseline survey. The baseline survey is justifiable to the extent that it will not only identify basic initial conditions of the affected area but also provide benchmark indicators for the end line evaluation of the project. Essentially, the assignment is to carry out household level and community level surveys, biophysical surveys and expert environmental assessment to provide indicators for monitoring of progress and evaluation of intervention impacts.
Enterprises Development
Empowerment and Wealth Creation
Going by the increasing unemployment, hunger, and poverty, there are dangers posed by youth unemployment, leading to cycles of poverty. The frustrations associated with the trend appear to force the youths into anti-social behavior antithetical to security and economic development. In a bid to prevent the increasing involvement of graduate youths in high profile criminal activities, the need to check the rising rate of unemployment among graduates of universities and polytechnics has therefore become overarching in Abia State. IRAID engages unemployed youths through a Graduate Youth Empowerment Scheme.
IRAID’s empowerment initiative affirms that empowering the poor and stimulating the growth of the rural economy can be achieved through the provision of needed financial services. These services enable community-based groups, especially women’s organizations, to engage in or expand economic activities and generate employment.
Added to enterprises training and empowerment is a microfinance scheme for low-income women in communities. IRAID uses community-based women’s groups as vehicles for the scheme, with collective appraisal of loan applications, loan utilization tracking and monitoring, and peer-pressure cross-guarantees to enforce repayment.
A culture of savings and investment is encouraged through the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) framework. IRAID facilitates Associate Savings and Credit Associations (ASCAs), through which savings are mobilized and credit is provided as agreed by the groups.
The microfinance scheme helps borrowers build their own capital by instilling a culture of savings and investment. Participants form ASCAs, meet regularly as agreed by the groups, mobilize savings and provide credit when the need arises. The principles of the VSLA framework form part of the capacity-building activities facilitated for the groups by IRAID.
Agriculture
Agricultural Support Program for Peasant Farmers
The importance and role of the agricultural sector to improved food security, resource employment and poverty reduction in our states cannot be over-emphasized. Agriculture, beyond its traditional roles, also contributes significantly to foreign exchange earnings and overall economic development. The agricultural sector is a huge employer of people, especially low-literate women and men and unemployed youths. The sector is yet to attain optimal productive potential, since existing farming techniques are often rudimentary and targeted mainly at subsistence demands.
To achieve desired outcomes and impacts for beneficiaries and communities affected by erosion and land degradation, the NEWMAP intervention begins with a baseline survey. This identifies the initial conditions of affected areas and provides benchmark indicators for end-line evaluation through household and community surveys, biophysical surveys and expert environmental assessment.
Skill Acquisition
Empowering Youths and Women
Capacity building is the process of developing an individual’s, organization’s, or community’s skills, abilities, processes, and resources to enable people to thrive in a changing environment. It involves fostering human resources, improving organizational structures and processes, and promoting an environment where individuals and groups can adapt, solve problems, and perform effectively and sustainably.
Most low-literate youths of communities who are bereft of technical or vocational skills are the target of this program. To help reverse this condition, IRAID organizes youth development programs focused on the acquisition of lucrative technical and vocational skills by low-literate and unskilled youths.
IRAID’s capacity-building and skill-acquisition programs train women and youths and empower them to start profitable businesses, either individually or as a cooperative. Education for Change focuses on accelerated growth for a better life. It is innovative, integrates new technology and helps participants master skills and concepts that prepare them for the future, building confidence to lead in their community.
The programme gives hope to youths who are low-literate, unemployed and without marketable skills. IRAID’s youth development programmes focus on practical technical and vocational skills that can help participants build sustainable livelihoods.
Enterprises Education for Unemployed Youths was delivered at Uzuakoli community, Bende LGA, in the Doods Methodist NEWMAP site communities under the World Bank-assisted Abia NEWMAP project in 2018. Another empowerment class during the NEWMAP project further demonstrates these efforts.
Health Outreach
Rural Health Support
IRAID’s family health work begins by listening to residents and local health partners. This community-led approach helps identify practical barriers to care, reduce preventable illness and make essential health services easier to reach.
With assistance from donors in Florida, USA, IRAID equipped a rural health centre in Umuahia North LGA. The Mbom Health equipping project was formally handed over to the community, helping to place the supported facility under local ownership and stewardship.
IRAID’s broader health programme includes family and reproductive health initiatives, health awareness and HIV/AIDS education. Project records also document a tuberculosis care initiative delivered with the Health Alive Foundation, which provided community sensitization, testing, medication support and education to reduce stigma.
By combining facility support with outreach, health education and trusted local partnerships, IRAID works to strengthen both the services available to rural families and the knowledge communities need to protect their well-being.
