GPI begins 12-month support programme for trafficking survivors

BENIN CITY — The Girls’ Power Initiative (GPI) has commenced a 12-month intervention to help 30 female survivors of human trafficking rebuild their lives and achieve sustainable reintegration into their communities.

The initiative, tagged “Engendering Community Resilience to Human Trafficking in Edo State,” is being implemented in Oredo, Egor and Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Areas from July 2026 to June 2027.

GPI Project Officer, Mr Harrison Edobor, disclosed this at a stakeholder meeting held in Benin City to mark the commencement of the programme.

He said the intervention would focus on the psychosocial wellbeing, safety and reintegration readiness of the beneficiaries through counselling, case management, referral services and individual reintegration planning.

Edobor explained that the programme would also address the economic needs of the survivors, with 20 beneficiaries expected to receive support through skills acquisition, mentorship and financial literacy.

He said 10 survivors considered most vulnerable would receive additional economic empowerment through business start-up support, followed by sustained monitoring under the Target Reintegration Platform.

The GPI Coordinator, May Ekido, said the organisation would rely on collaboration with relevant stakeholders to identify the beneficiaries and ensure that the intervention reaches women who require the support most.

She said effective reintegration required sustained collaboration among government institutions, civil society organisations and other relevant actors.

The project is supported by the Resilience Fund through the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime.

Among those represented at the meeting were the Nigeria Immigration Service, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Edo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Edo State Migration Agency, NGOs and the media.

The stakeholders pledged to support GPI in delivering the project and strengthening efforts to protect and empower survivors of human trafficking in Edo State.