The Sustainable Mechanism for Improving Livelihoods and Household Empowerment (SMILE) project, a consortium of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), ActionAIDS and Westat has come to an end in Nigeria. The project has contributed positively the lives of thousands of vulnerable children and their caregivers through a coordinated multi-sectorial approach in 5 states. A dissemination event was held on Wednesday, November 28 2018 in Abuja, with Gede in attendance.
There were a host of guests from development partners, federal and state government agencies, patient community and project beneficiaries.
CRS’s Country Representative, Rebecca Hallam and its USAID counterpart in their different remarks, welcomed participants and expressed satisfaction within the outcomes of the project cycle.
Beneficiaries greased the occasion with testimonies including enrolment into HIV-AIDS treatment and care, households economic strengthening and access to basic education for vulnerable children.
Goodwill messages were received from individuals, partners and government agencies. Gede’s Managing Director, Mr Joseph Odogwu, thanked SMILE and the USAID for the partnership that contributed to developing and validating mental health screening tools to be used among orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria as well as the pilot study for tools utilisation.
The SMILE project may have ended, but the effects will be felt for time to come!