MTC Foundation celebrates IWD with IDPs in Benue, trains 30 Women on Soap Making

From Dooshima Terkura, Makurdi

A Non Governmental Organization, NGO), Maria Touch of Care Foundation (MTC Foundation)
10th March 2026, marked International Women’s Day with women at the International Market Makeshift IDP Camp, Makurdi, in an event that brought together over 160 participants including more than 105 women residents of the camp 50 men and 5 camp officials for a celebration that centred on displaced women as the focus and co-creators.

The event was organised with the dua themes of this year’s IWD which is Give to Gain, Rights, Justice and Action For All Women and Girls.

Grace Udoo Tyowua, Executive Director, MTC Foundation said the event was a deliberate effort to extend IWD visibility to women in displacement, a group the organisation noted is frequently absent from mainstream celebrations despite facing some of the most acute challenges to
women’s rights and dignity.

According to her, central to the event was the screening of a short documentary film co-created with
IDP women at the camp. The film features IDP women speaking in their own voices about life in displacement, resilience, rights, and what genuine investment in women looks like from the inside.

She described the film as an act of visibility placing the faces and voices of displaced women before a wider audience on a day
when such women are rarely seen.

She said “International Women’s Day should not pass without these women being seen and heard. This film was co-created with them, not about them. Their voices, their faces, their words. That is the action this day demands.”

The event also featured a drama illustration performed by community members,
which depicted the consequences of investing in a male child while excluding female
children from education and opportunity. The performance, rooted in a local and metaphor involving a three-stone cooking fire, drew a strong response from the audience and reinforced the event’s core message: that when any member of a family or community is excluded from investment, the whole structure becomes unstable.

Attendees were invited to sign a Give to Gain Commitment Board, on which both men and women pledged to support women in displacement and to invest in women and girls in their communities. Signatures and thumbprints were accepted equally, with the board designed to remain at the camp beyond the day’s event for continued participation.

In the event’s most direct expression of the Give to Gain theme, MTC Foundation trained thirty women from households within the camp in soap making as part of a skills acquisition initiative.

The training, which the foundation positioned as an investment in the economic rights and agency of displaced women, equipped
participants with practical income-generating skills and starter kits to kickstart the business.

“Rights and justice for women cannot remain words. They have to
become action and for us, action means putting skills, resources, and opportunity directly in the hands of women who have been displaced from everything familiar. That is Give to Gain in practice for us at MTC.

Maria Onah, Founder, Maria Touch of Care Foundation said the documentary film is available to view on MTC Foundation’s YouTube channel and LinkedIn page. She called on the public to watch and share the film as an act of solidarity with women in displacement, noting that visibility and affirmation are themselves forms of support that carry no financial cost.

Maria Touch of Care Foundation (MTC Foundation) is a women-led community based organisation working to improve the lives of vulnerable populations, with a focus on women, children, and displaced communities.

The organisation works through advocacy, education and empowerment, gender and human rights, and community engagement.