Activities of Faith-Based Christian Organizations and the Economic Empowerment of Female Members in Southern Senatorial District, Cross River State, Nigeria: Implications for Community Social Work and Non-Formal Education

Abstract

The study investigated whether the activities of faith-based organizations influence the economic empowerment of their female members with varied implications for community social work and non formal in the southern senatorial district of Cross River State, Nigeria. The study population comprised eight thousand, eight hundred (8,800) female members registered in one hundred and fifty-nine (159) churches in the study area. From this population a sample of eight hundred and eight (880) members were drawn using stratified random sampling. Data collected were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed that the activities of faithbased Christian organizations in vocational training empowered female members through skills acquisition, income generation, decision making, reduction in illiteracy rate, increased food production and healthy lifestyle. Provision of loan facilities by the organizations also exerted significant influence on the empowerment of female members in all the dimensions of economic empowerment except in the area of income generation. We suggest that the faith-based organizations should collaborate with foreigner donor agencies to further improve the social and economic wellbeing of their members. Also non-formal education programme providers should incorporate income generation activities into its literacy programmes.

Keywords: Faith-based Christian Organizations, Economic empowerment., female, Cross River state, Nigeria