Fash4Dev

The menace of extreme poverty or living below $1.90 dollar a day affects over 700 million people around the world. According to a UN publication, poverty headcount rose to 84 million in Nigeria in the year 2019, making the country home to the largest number of extreme poor in the world. On current trends, the country will hold this sad title through 2030.

Unfortunately, poverty has always been feminized in Nigeria with women and girls being over represented amongst the poor. Over 60% of the poorest people in Nigeria are women. This means approximately 52 million women in the country wallow in extreme poverty (The International Journal of Business and Management, 2019). Due to extreme poverty, women often lack legal rights, have fewer resources and less access to health care and education (UNDP, 2020).

Youth unemployment rate in Nigeria, hits its highest, rising from 9.62% in 1999 to 32.5% in 2021(statista), this rise was accompanied by poverty, economic inequality, and social vices.

The UN, World Bank and other powerful bodies across the world recognize skill empowerment as a tool to improve economies and combat poverty in impoverished countries. This is why Whoopy Yun College has created Fash4Dev initiative, Fash4Dev means “Fashion for Development”, a skill empowerment mission which targets vulnerable women and youths in Oyo state, a state in south west Nigeria with about 10% of its 7.8 million population living below the poverty line.

Fash4Dev aims to lift at least 12, 400 women and youths out of extreme poverty by 2030, by empowering them with skills that can generate sustainable income. The beneficiaries of fash4dev will be taught skills such as fashion designing, fashion photography, graphic design  and printing, tambour beading and tambour embroidery.

This will not only help reduce poverty and unemployment in the nation but will also indirectly reduce the negative impacts that poverty poses on women in the community as well as reduce the social vices.

The Fash4Dev initiative is an innovation of the Whoopy Yun College which prioritizes the empowerment of vulnerable women and youths in low-income communities of Nigeria living below the poverty line of $1.9 per day. The project aims to empower women and youths with income generating skills to escape poverty and live rich and productive lives. Fash4Dev is a twice a year free empowerment program.

Since inception, Whoopy Yun College has distinguished itself as a passionate contributor to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goal 1; eradicating poverty in all forms, empowering over 50 women in Oyo state, Nigeria with fashion designing, leadership and entrepreneurial skills. Fash4Dev also aims to provide an interest free startup capital (equipment) for its beneficiaries.