The Director of the women and empowerment centre in Menji, Lebialem Division, Mrs. Mary Atem Agendia, has said the centre will go a long way to train more Lebialem women in all walks of life in 2015.

Speaking recently at the centre, Mrs. Mary Atem said she is very happy with the support the government has made towards the development of the centre. But like Oliver Twist she said more is still needed from the government and the council.

It’s worth noting that the centre is about 70 percent towards completion though not operating from its permanent side. Assuring the Lebialem people, she said the centre will bring a lot of development to the community especially to women who have not had the opportunity to go to school and also to those who have gone to school but still need some basic talents to build up their homes.

Mrs. Mary Atem Agendia also explained that the centre now has about six departments which are very functional such as tailoring, soap-making, counseling, cookery, educative health talks just to name a few. Recently, the centre has trained more than fifty women in the production of soap which in return have gone a long way to help them in supporting their families and some done in large scale sold in the market to generate revenue for their families.

The centre has organised many seminars and educative talks on family planning and also discourages “came we stay marriages” in the community and encourages women to go for legal marriages.

Talking to Eden, one of the participants of the centre said she is very happy with the initiative the Director has taken because it has come to open the eyes of the women in the community as they uses to feel that their duty was just to go farming, give birth to children and then cook food for their husbands.

“I think with the coming of this centre and being functional it will go a long way to empower the Lebialem woman in different ways,” she said.

On some of the difficulties faced, Mrs. Mary Atem said it has not been easy for them to convince some women and young girls who are school dropouts to make use of the centre. She also used this opportunity to call on the Minister of Women and Empowerment and the Family to send more staff to the centre.