On Tuesday, 1st January, 2013, at the Ossah Community Square, the Udo Age Grade Society of Osa Ibeku autonomous Community in Abia State of Nigeria bestowed coveted Community Service Award on the Executive Director of PRAWA, Dr. Uju Agomoh. The award is in recognition of the sustainable community development initiatives and programmes of PRAWA.

PRAWA had extended its Crime Prevention and Community Development Scheme [CP-CDS] to OSA IBEKU Community. The Project which included income generation and loan scheme was executed by PRAWA in collaboration with OSA IBEKU community with the support of Statoil, Norway from 2000 to 2005.

It included donations of Cassava Processing, Palm Oil Processing and Kernel Cracking Machines to the community. The project was designed such that proceeds from sales of products processed with the machines will be given as revolving loans to members of the community.

The projects sustainability was evident from the beginning when the Osa Ibeku people accepted the project, owned and sustained it till date. “Crime Prevention and Community Development Scheme was muted in the year 2000 by PRAWA for the selected benefitting communities which included Osa Ibeku but the funding support ended in 2005.

Six years after, the Osa Ibeku Community is still running the project and counting the enormous benefits that accruing to their community from it. That was the reason of the Community Service Award to PRAWA” Elder Ahamefule Onwukwe, Secretary Award Planning Committee said.

Responding to the Community Service Award, Dr. Agomoh said: “Sustainability of projects after their technical and financial life span is very crucial to PRAWA as an Organization. In designing any project from its problem diagnostic stage to the end line impact level, PRAWA is interested in the ownership of the projects by the intended beneficiaries. This is why almost all the projects executed by PRAWA since its debut in 1994 have empirical evidences of average 80% sustainability potentials and we are happy about it”