of trained volunteer facilitators (from amongst the women), we give each and every woman the opportunity to present her business idea and work either as an individual or with interested team members in actualising their dreams. Once a business idea has been converted into a viable business plan, the woman or women involved is/are given start-up capital for the take-off of their project. The loan comes in part from their sub-community cooperative savings (there are currently 13 such groups in existence strictly for business support and to prevent the mindset of the option of begging and hand-outs) and in part as a grant from GUOSOW Leadership. The former serves to strengthen the spirit of accountability to one another. With all the resources and training at their disposal, as well as tools for expansion from GUOSOW Leadership, every business has the opportunity to become self-sufficient. Once a business begins to generate regular income, has become self-sustainable, the start-up loan is repaid to the sub-community cooperative to provide support for other businesses. Every woman is expected to share a monthly financial report and her business success story to motivate others. So far, GUOSOW Women have successfully started up oil palm farming, soap and other cosmetics production, snailery, mushroomery and poultry farming, in addition to petty grocery trading. The GUOSOW Women are currently working towards setting up their very own NAFDAC-approved pure sachet water production and palm oil production plants. All perishable produces are directly sold or supplied to wholesalers within the community markets. GUOSOW Women’s products will soon be made available online for supply orders, spreading their reach. The GUOSOW Woman takes the bold step to alleviate poverty in her family and community.

access to basic reproductive health services and that the new-borns grow strong and healthy even beyond the age of five.
In the last 5 years, GUOSOW has worked with healthcare providers in Ikot Ekpene, Obot Akara, Essien Udim, Ikono, Itu, Abak and Uyo local government areas of Akwa Ibom State, to provide over 2000 women and children with access to professional healthcare, antenatal care, free drugs, hygiene improvement trainings and practices.

development organizations (in this case GUOSOW) bringing together young people of ages 18 to 25, from all backgrounds, to make a real difference in some of the world’s poorest communities. For this premiere outing, the programme was updated to include Kenya as one of the volunteering countries in partnership with Nigeria and UK for the first-time ever. The aim: to “improve the appreciation and understanding of young people in mathematics and science via the implementation of Inclusive Neighbourhood Spaces for Children (INSC)”. It was carried out in 4 pre-approved community schools in Kwali: JSS Bako JSS Sheda, JDSS Kwali and JSS Kwali Central. Cycle I ran from July to October, 2015. It was reported that, “The Partner Organization GUOSOW has in the past implemented educational projects in various communities in Nigeria. They have a pedigree of supporting community volunteers that work with them. They were indeed the right one to deliver this project. They had earlier established a strong relationship with the community before the arrival of the first ICS team in the community. This made the work of the ICS teams smooth and without hitches in the community.” This led to Cycle II which ran from September to December, 2016.
The ICS teams were able to support community development through:
(1) Community Action Days (CADs), raising awareness on very important issues in the communities including (but not limited to) volunteerism, sanitation, health issues, community development, gender equality, child protection and human rights.
(2) Inspiring community youths to take responsibility for the learning of their young ones by recruiting interested individuals into community citizen service which served as direct support for the inclusive learning spaces created.
(3) Inspiring the Local Education Authority to conduct trainings for teachers of all cadre as a result of the teachers training organized by the ICS Team.
(4) Inspiring young people to take up volunteering roles within and outside their community.
Schools have reported increase in the interest of science and maths among students that were members of the INSC created and managed by the ICS team. The ICS team organized a science challenge for schools in Kwali Area Council and the winners of this prestigious contest were members of the INSC. GUOSOW has developed a project plan for a similar project in other communities in Nigeria. They will be recruiting local volunteers to support this project in the various communities. Overall, the ICS Kwali cycle was celebrated as a huge success.

raw materials are widely available and the people of the state have the skills and experience. However, it was found that there were still areas of improvement in the oil palm production process. Our TNA concluded that it was necessary to create enterprises that are associated with oil palm production to be part of the value chain production. While palm oil production would form the major value chain, the enterprises below would be developed as part of the value chain using raw materials directly from the chain or requiring provision of services in the various business units of the value chain. By leveraging on the use of information communication technology (ICT) to improve operations, embedding a savings culture amongst community members, and providing in-depth entrepreneurship training and support, the objectives of the development of the oil palm value chain will be achieved. The Objectives of the Oil Palm Value Chain are:
(1)To create a sustainable market with the communities for selling their products and services for improved livelihood within 1 year.
(2)To empower subsector business units of the value chain to specialize and improve quality and quality to satisfy their customers.
(3)To develop contract farming agreements that will provide a backward and forward market linkages with the value chain for profitable small holder groups production.