CEE-HOPE’S RELIEF OUTREACH TO CHILDREN IN FORGOTTEN IDP CAMPS IN THE NORTH

• Immediate reliefs’ intervention.
• Planned long term educational rehabilitation for impacted children. 

 

Our organisation CEEHOPE had an outreach to children in internally displaced camps in Plateau and the FCT recently. These are mostly camps that are largely out of the limelight and hosting hundreds of children displaced from states across the North including Borno, Adamawa, Taraba etc caught in the waves of the Boko Haram insurgency, as well as ethno-religious crises across the Middle Belt area. The visit was to provide immediate relief and also to explore opportunities for future assistance especially educational, of the displaced children. It was a major eye-opener as to their plight.

JOS.

In Jos, our project assistant Titigbe Onyekachi visited the Recab Home for the Displaced which houses 230 children, mostly displaced from Bornu and Adamawa states, and many of whom are orphans. They are cared for by a team of volunteers. The home, said Mr. Sam Akaaka, the director, enjoys no form of government or institutional support but the goodwill of individuals and religious and other charitable organisations. The only form of government support so far was a visit by the wife of outgoing governor of Plateau state late last year in which she donated mattresses and food items. Another individual also donated a building for the IDPs. CEE-HOPE donated food items, books, toys and other items especially for the children. 

Also in Jos, CEE-HOPE visited and donated books, clothing and other materials to children at the Queen of Peace Model Academy, established for displaced children from across the North by an educationist Mrs. Elizabeth Victor. After six years of tuition-free operation and with little assistance, the school imposed a school fees of N3, 500 per term but many of the parents (displaced and still trying to find their economic bearings), could not afford to pay and so about 50 of the children dropped out of school, while some members of the PTA struggles to augment salaries of the few teachers. The school currently has 140 children, many of them orphans.

The school’s urgent needs, according to the head teacher Mrs. Dorcas John, include text books, note books, school register, diary, sporting materials, crayons, pencils, biros and school drum. “The children need to pay their fees for us to pay our staffs too,’ she added.

CEE-HOPE hopes to follow up with a funds-drive to assist in bringing back the dropped-out children, and to help in other support towards the continued operation of the school.

FCT.

The visit to Abuja saw CEE-HOPE at the IDP camp in Area One, an informal setting consisting of about 70 families and 182 children mostly from the North East especially in the last one year. Media attention on the place, established by the IDPs themselves, has so far attracted the presence of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) though not much help has come from government. Many of the children are without their parents or guardians. Prince Bala Yusuf from Gwoza in Bornu State (whose father was killed by the insurgents) coordinates the camp. The IDPs were living on borrowed time having been given quit notice by the landlady, he said. He also complained of constant harassments and arrests by the army sniffing for Boko Haram members. According to Yusuf, the wife of the FCT minister is the only person from government to have visited them so far. ‘We hope that Boko Haram will end soon so that we all can return to our homes because there is no place like home,’ he added.

Another member of the camp Mr. Samson Ayuba, also from Gwoza, shares his experience: “I came to the camp last February with my pregnant wife. Since the last attack on my village, I have lost contact with my family. We all had to flee from our land. It has been difficult for us to feed here. Our senators and government officials from Bornu are not helping us. Since we came here none of them came here to help us. We had to build a temporary school for our children where I teach and no one is paying us for that. We hope that you (CEE-HOPE) will help us”. 

 

In light of the above, CEE-HOPE urges government to step in in assisting IDPs who are putting up in obscure homes and neighborhoods, and as much as possible help in the educational rehabilitation of children displaced/impacted by the insurgency and ethno-religious crises across the North.

We are most grateful to friends of CEE-HOPE Nigeria whose assistance helped us realised this outreach, the second in what we believe will be a long term program (The first relief was to IDPs in a Kano neighbourhood): Salt Essien-Nelson, Enobong Essien-Nelson, Unyime Ivy-King, Edobong Ukpabio, Africa Independent Television (AIT), Stella Ukpapi (AIT), Rejoice Fidelis Mba, Ier Jonathan, Bode Olufemi, Tunji Buhari and the Bring Back the Book initiative’s team.

 We also thank our board members Femi Adesina, Lekan Otufodunrin, Rev. Okey Ifionu, Prof (Mrs.) Ebele Eko, Richard Mammah, John Abah, Sam Olukoya and Betty Abah.

Our sincere gratitude goes to Titigbe Onyekachi who coordinated the relief activities and who has been a great asset to CEE-HOPE