Lagos — In a a bid to alleviate the scourges of insurgency in the Northeast of Nigeria, a UK-based Nigerian charity organisation has intervened with another batch of humanitarian services and relief items for the victims.
The NGO, operating under the aegis the Good Samaritan Foundation, arrived in the country on Friday to lend a helping hand to the Federal Government in addressing the socio-economic and psychological challenges of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the zone.
The Founder and Director of the NGO, Mrs Funmi Ademilua, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Sunday that the intervention, the second in two years, was aimed at addressing the post-insurgency challenges of the IDPs.
“We are here to assist the Nigerian Government and the people that have been overwhelmed by the magnitude of the damage done by the terror coupled with the economic recession the country went through.
“The problems of IDPs are too enormous to be left to the government to bear, hence our intervention like others too,’’ said Ademilua, a counsellor and humanitarian.
She said the NGO was solely funded by her and the Rev. Esther Abimbola Ajayi, also based in the UK, as part of efforts at giving back to the society and expressed profound appreciation for her support.
Ademilua explained that the Foundation’s three-pronged interventionist programme on youth violence, anti-social activities and poverty would help the vulnerable particularly the youth to shun violence and live normal life.
She said:“As a trained counsellor and stress management professional and a product of single parent, who has experienced emotional hard side of life at a tender age after my father’s demise, I have the burden in my heart.
“To strive to fill the gap of psychological, social and economic needs of the hopeless and the less privileged.
“We are bringing in counsellors and nurses to address post-traumatic stress disorder especially among children and young ones and to do check-ups at some of the IDP camps.
Ademilua said the next phase of their intervention was to build a warehouse to keep the relief items and organise vocational training for adults and women and provide seed money to them for petty trading.
Ademilua, who said she had met with the wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, appealed to public-spirited people and philanthropists to assist the IDPs.
“It requires a multi-sectoral and multi-level approach to get well-meaning people and agencies to support government’s efforts in helping the IDPs.
NAN also reports that the relief items included food, groceries, toys, shoes, clothes, drugs, phones, blankets, mattresses and mosquito nets.
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