In Adamawa State, where women and girls with disabilities often face the double weight of stigma and exclusion, Debbie Kauna Foundation (DKF) is proving that empowerment is more than a word, it’s action in play.
In May 2025, under the project “The Empowerment of Women and Girls with Disabilities Towards Full and Effective Participation and Gender Equality in Adamawa State,” supported by UN Women with funding from the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF), DKF distributed marketable skills starter kits to trained beneficiaries across Michika and Madagali LGAs.
This wasn’t just a handover ceremony. It was a continuation of the #Skill_Up training where over 300 women and girls with disabilities acquired vocational and entrepreneurial skills from tailoring and shoemaking, to tie & dye, poultry, rice processing, livestock management, and backyard gardening for 6 months, each paired to a mentor on the selected skill of choice.
The distribution of kits ensured that training did not end as theory. Each toolkit symbolized the start of an enterprise, the promise of income, and the pathway to independence. For many participants, this was their very first step into self-reliance and financial inclusion.
🌱 A tailoring machine became the means for a mother to sew her children’s school uniforms and take orders from neighbors.
🐓 A poultry starter pack became the seed for a young woman to build a sustainable livelihood.
👟 A shoemaking kit gave a girl with disability the confidence to craft and sell, challenging stigma with skill.
Beyond tools, what DKF delivered was dignity, hope, and opportunity. When women and girls with disabilities are supported with practical skills and resources, they are not just lifted out of dependency they are positioned as contributors to their families, communities, and the wider economy.
At DKF, we believe empowerment is most powerful when it is sustainable. And through initiatives like these, we reaffirm our commitment to building a society where persons with disabilities are not left behind, but carried forward into futures of choice and possibility.
We remain thankful to UN Women, NHF, and all partners for fueling this vision.
Because where we care specially, transformation begins.