By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
In a bid to save the dying Arts and cultural heritage of the Original people of Abuja, Helpline Social Support Initiative, is set to train 100 women and youths across the FCT.
The Coordinator of Helpline Social Support Initiative, Arome Onaja at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday disclosed that the Non-Governmental Organization, NGO, Helpline Social Support with the support from the MacArthur Foundation would pick 100 women and youth from the nine tribes that make up the original inhabitants.
Onoja said that the training is the second phase of 300 participants for the training under a two-year project to promote preserve, save and revamp the cultural rights of the Original Inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
The two-year project is aimed at training 300 vulnerable women and youth on cultural attire production to revamping the lost cultural identity of the Original Inhabitants of the FCT.
He stated that since the Federal government took over land from the original inhabitants, the people are gradually loosing their arts and culture of their ancestors, which is a sorry case for their younger generation.
The Inhabitants, he explained are revamping the obliterating Asumbo dye pit due to encroachment, to relive economic life of the people.
Other objectives include raising awareness about the existence of the Original Inhabitants of FCT and preservation of other cultural sites.
The original inhabitants, however, regret that since the take-over of their land under the decree to turn their ancestral home to the nation’s capital in 1973, the Federal Government have failed to keep to their promise of integrating them into development.
Today the natives are scattered , lost economic trees and farm lands amid high unemployment rate among the Original Inhabitants.
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