BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
Some female labourers at the Abakaliki Rice Mill, in Ebonyi State, have called on governments at all levels for empowerment to cushion the effects of the hardship they are passing through.
According to them, they now suffer various eye defects, owing to the hazards associated with the craft.
The women, who are of different age brackets, claimed that they depend on abandoned rice grains they are able to get from husks after winnowing as their daily bread.
Appealing for opportunities of skills acquisition in order to be self reliant, the women attributed their choice of working as unpaid labourers at the mill for few abandoned grains of rice to poverty.
They called for the intervention of governments, coporate bodies, philanthropists and well meaning individuals, adding that some of them already acquired skills like hair dressing, tailoring and catering, but couldn’t start up the businesses because of lack of capital.
They accused the management of the rice mill, led by Mr Linus Obeji, of not giving them any payments, incentives and safety kits, despite the hazards they encountered while rendering free evacuating services to them all round the year.
One of the affected women, Mrs Chidiebere Nkwegu, a mother of six, who has sewing skills, called on government and non-governmental organisations to help her with a sewing machine to enable her to be financially independent.
She said some of them were already losing their sights and experiencing other health hazards, owing to continuous exposure to husk dust.
“Almost all of us working here suffer one eye problem or the other because of the husk dust that enters our eyes daily. That is why you see us looking like masquerades,” she added.
Another woman, Mrs Evelyn Orji, a 40 year-old mother of three pleaded for N60,000 business capital to be self reliant.
“My name is Ukamaka Anyigor, I have worked here for six years. I have seven children. I will stop coming here because I am not benefiting anything. Today is my first day of coming after one week break because the pain in my eyes became severe and unbearable. Having experienced a little relief, I am back because my children have to feed,” another labourer lamented.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Chairman of the rice mill, Mr Linus Obeji, were not successful.
