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30<br />
THE NORTH REPORT<br />
THE NATION TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015<br />
•Hope<br />
Tough life for<br />
displaced kids<br />
•Continued from page 29<br />
nals. This is traumatising, he said,<br />
especially for the women and children<br />
at a time when they have<br />
lost loved ones to the insurgency.<br />
During a recent visit to the camp<br />
to present relief materials, an official<br />
of the Buhari Support<br />
Organisation, Hajia Hanatu Akilu<br />
condemned government neglect<br />
of the IDPs.<br />
Hajia Akilu, who was close to<br />
tears due to the deplorable conditions<br />
under which the children<br />
live, said they decided to donate<br />
the food items when they discovered<br />
that the children were malnourished.<br />
She said, “We have been here<br />
before on a medical mission and<br />
we discovered that some of the<br />
babies were malnourished and<br />
we decided to bring this small<br />
food. It is not really about the<br />
food but for the world to see how<br />
these people are suffering. We<br />
have them in other settlements<br />
across the city. I was at NEMA<br />
[National Emergency Management<br />
Agency] office and they<br />
were saying that they don’t have<br />
camps for them because they<br />
were not in the state capital. The<br />
point is, if we have people like<br />
this, it does not matter where they<br />
are. The government should provide<br />
facilities for them. We<br />
should have proper camping for<br />
refugees; we should make adequate<br />
provision for their children,<br />
their health care because we<br />
can’t just leave them like this.<br />
They have suffered serious<br />
trauma, some of them have seen<br />
their family members being<br />
slain. Some of them have horrible<br />
stories of walking long distances<br />
and yet, like one of them said,<br />
they are not being treated like Nigerians.<br />
We just can’t just sit back<br />
and watch. We all have to be alive<br />
to our responsibilities”.<br />
Things are better for displaced<br />
children in Kano. The state government<br />
has a credible educational<br />
intervention programme<br />
for them. Known as the Borno<br />
Orphans Model Boarding Primary<br />
School, Kano State Governor<br />
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso said<br />
the school was constructed under<br />
the Special Intervention<br />
Programme for orphaned children<br />
affected by the insurgency<br />
in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa<br />
states.<br />
‘We have been here before<br />
on a medical mission and<br />
we discovered that some<br />
of the babies were<br />
malnourished and we<br />
decided to bring this small<br />
food. It is not really about<br />
the food but for the world<br />
to see how these people<br />
are suffering. NEMA<br />
personnel were saying<br />
they didn’t have camps for<br />
them because they were<br />
not in the state capital. The<br />
point is, if we have people<br />
like this, it does not matter<br />
where they are. The<br />
government should<br />
provide proper camping<br />
for refugees; we should<br />
make adequate provisions<br />
for their children, their<br />
health care because we<br />
can’t just leave<br />
them like this’<br />
Kwankwaso said, “The Special<br />
Intervention Programme is aimed<br />
at taking up full responsibilities of<br />
100 children, who are between the<br />
ages of five and six whose parents<br />
are either dead, displaced or lost as<br />
a result of the insurgency”.<br />
He assured that the state government<br />
will take care of the children’s<br />
education, training, upbringing,<br />
feeding, clothing, security, health<br />
care and accommodation. He also<br />
said the government would continue<br />
to look after the children until<br />
they complete their basic education,<br />
the security situation in the<br />
states affected by the insurgency<br />
improves and when it is safe for<br />
them to return home. The governor<br />
who is heading for the senate<br />
in the in lying government said His<br />
attention was drawn to the plight<br />
of the children, who have been deprived<br />
of parental care and concern<br />
as a result of the security challenges<br />
in the Northeast by NEMA and<br />
other concerned individuals. He<br />
urged the federal and state governments<br />
and well-meaning individuals<br />
and groups to come to the aid of<br />
the orphans to make their lives<br />
more meaningful.<br />
Hope’s eye surgery deferred<br />
ANY improvement<br />
Hope<br />
on little<br />
Dimlong’s<br />
left eye since<br />
February when we<br />
published her story?<br />
Well, sort of.<br />
The three-year-old<br />
was playing with a<br />
mate near her house in<br />
Plateau State when her<br />
partner accidentally<br />
struck her in the eye<br />
with an object. Since<br />
then Hope has been in<br />
danger of not only losing<br />
the eye; she has<br />
also been screaming<br />
due to the pain. Her<br />
parents said they could<br />
not afford a surgery.<br />
Luck came her way.<br />
Although she was earlier<br />
scheduled to be<br />
taken to her grand-<br />
‘She was playing with a mate near her<br />
house in Plateau State when her partner<br />
accidentally struck her in the eye with an<br />
object. Since then Hope has been in danger<br />
of not only losing the eye; she has also<br />
been screaming due to the pain’<br />
From Yusufu Aminu Idegu, Jos<br />
mother, Hope managed to join her<br />
schoolmates to receive Senator<br />
Gyang Pwajok, who was on a campaign<br />
tour of Jos North, the district<br />
he represents at the Senate. The lawmaker<br />
was the governorship candidate<br />
of the Peoples Democratic Party<br />
(PDP) in the April 11election.<br />
As Pwajok passed by, he reportedly<br />
noticed little Hope among the<br />
children and asked what happened<br />
to her left eye.<br />
Thereafter, the lawmaker arranged<br />
•Some of the children at a camp in Jos<br />
•Kids at the camp<br />
Kwankwaso is not only dealing<br />
with the educational needs of the<br />
children, but their health requirements<br />
also. He said the state Commissioner<br />
for Health has been directed<br />
to appraise the medical condition<br />
of each of the pupils with a<br />
view to identifying those that need<br />
special medical care for necessary<br />
action.<br />
There are about 1000 children at<br />
the Jos camp. Like their counterparts<br />
in Kano, life is not as dreadful<br />
as it is in several other places<br />
but they have the NGOs, not the<br />
government, to thank for that.<br />
They and their parents worry<br />
about their destroyed homes, so<br />
even as federal troops exult over<br />
recaptured villages, the IDPs remain<br />
sullen. Thus, the camps which<br />
were supposed to provide temporary<br />
shelter have become their permanent<br />
homes.<br />
that the girl be taken to hospital for<br />
treatment on his account.<br />
He had surgery in mind, but medical<br />
advice in Jos, the state capital, required<br />
that Hope be first treated with<br />
medication for some time before the<br />
surgery.<br />
The eye specialists discovered that<br />
Hope’s case had become complicated<br />
due to long delay in seeking medical<br />
attention. They recommended that<br />
before the surgery, the girl be placed<br />
on certain drugs for a period of four<br />
months before the surgery.<br />
So, Hope is receiving treatment preparatory<br />
to the surgical procedure.<br />
Her mother Christiana, the entire<br />
family and the school management<br />
are full of gratitude to Senator<br />
Pwajok.<br />
Mrs Christiana Dimlong said,<br />
“The coming of Senator Pwajok is<br />
like a miracle to me; he is God-sent.<br />
I’ve hardly slept since the accident, I<br />
keep praying for help because it is<br />
beyond my power. Because of the<br />
psychological trauma I was passing<br />
through over my daughter’s case,<br />
her grandmother was to come and<br />
pick her to the village. But God<br />
caused a delay so that divine help<br />
will come. If not for God, the girl<br />
would have been taken away and<br />
the Senator would not have met her,<br />
but God had arranged it to happen<br />
this way for her to get help, so I<br />
thank God. I thank Senator Pwajok,<br />
I never knew the senator before<br />
now; he has touched my life and that<br />
of my daughter and the entire family.<br />
The ideology of Boko Haram is<br />
to stop Nigerians from acquiring<br />
Western education, and to that<br />
extent, the insurgents have almost<br />
succeeded in the Northeast. The<br />
rampaging insurgents have not<br />
only destroyed homes in Borno,<br />
Yobe and Adamawa states, but<br />
have also wiped out schools.<br />
The Jos camps host over 2000<br />
people from 132 families, all of<br />
whom are primarily concerned<br />
about survival, not schooling for<br />
their children.<br />
Some of the displaced persons<br />
are hosted by a Jos-based non-governmental<br />
organisation known as<br />
Stefanos Foundation, which is involved<br />
in human rights, advocacy,<br />
relief and rehabilitation of<br />
victims of the continuous violence<br />
in the North. Stefanos has been<br />
working in the field since 2002; the<br />
organization responded to distress<br />
calls for help by the victims<br />
who have come to trust that the<br />
organisation is able to find help<br />
for them.<br />
Programme Manager of the<br />
foundation, Mr. Mark Lipdo said,<br />
“From August 2014, many displaced<br />
persons began to migrate<br />
to Jos in trickles and were accommodated<br />
in private homes but<br />
there came a time that they became<br />
too many to accommodate, hence<br />
•Continued on page 31