A visit to Jamiyar Matan Arewa home of orphans, abandoned children
A Non-Governmental Organization, Jamiyar Matan Arewa (JMA) established by women of northern Nigeria has for the past 50 years been putting smiles, giving hope and life to the hopeless children within the society. Established in 1963 with the blessing and support of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the organization has consistently supported […]
A Non-Governmental Organization, Jamiyar Matan Arewa (JMA) established by women of northern Nigeria has for the past 50 years been putting smiles, giving hope and life to the hopeless children within the society.
Established in 1963 with the blessing and support of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the organization has consistently supported the overall growth of every child that comes in contact with it. When the idea of JMA as an NGO was initiated, the need to come up with a project or program for the NGO became paramount.
So, the idea to begin to cater for helpless children was birthed when the founding mothers of the organization visited Barau Dikko hospital, and saw nine children abandoned by their parents in the hospital. Moved by the scenario, they immediately decided to begin to operate an orphanage where such children can be adequately catered for as the NGO’s core project.
They went ahead to narrate what they saw in the hospital to Sir Ahmadu Bello who donated a house at Dendo road in Kaduna and 500 pounds to start the orphanage. As time went on, people began fostering the children. The house given by Sir Ahmadu Bello then has been expanded to accommodate the home, school, laboratories and skills acquisition centre for women ,among others.
The Orphanage
The orphanage since its establishment has been devoted to the care of orphans, abandoned children, children of destitutes, and children whose biological parents are unable or unwilling to take care of them.
According to the coordinator of JMA, Maryam Ahmed Tahir, since its establishment hundreds of children have passed through the home. Presently there are 22 children at the orphanage including infants, toddlers and young children. The children according to her are either picked by people or staff of the home ,while some of them are abandoned by their original parents in hospitals; sometimes due to lack of money to settle their bills.
When the children are brought to the home, they are named for easy identification, and because everybody needs to have a name. As they grow, they fit into the society without letting people around them know where and how they grew up. Those who are married among them don’t even tell their children where they grew up, says Hajiya Maryam.
She recalled that there was a wedding that was to hold at the premises of the orphanage a long time ago and when it was announced by Frank Oliseh of the NTA at that time , the parents of the girl recognized her to be their daughter that was abandoned at the home during war. She however said they came for her and she was reunited with her family.
The home engaged the services of matrons who take care of the children. While the matrons face their duty of bathing, dressing, feeding and changing the diapers of the babies and other children, there is a laundry man and cooks engaged specifically to serve the orphanage.
The matrons run shifts as there are three of them for the morning shift, two in the afternoon and three at night. So the children have people watching over them round the clock.
On how the children are being catered for, the coordinator said that the home mostly relies on donations from good samaritans and corporate organizations, as well as school fees paid by children who attend Jamiyar Matan Arewa premier school ,also run by the NGO. “Although, our school fees are very little but it is for people that cannot really afford so much, and do not want their children to go to LEA. We use the money to maintain the workers’ salaries, feed the children who are mostly infants. We give the infants baby milk to substitute for breast milk. A carton of baby milk costs about N25,000, we also feed them with Cerelac, noodles for those who are grown up among them. We use over 30 diapers per day and about five cartons of NAN per month. So taking care of them require so much funds.”
“During festive periods, good samaritans sometimes buy clothes, food and other valuable items for the children, while some families come to celebrate with the children in the home. So,we dress our children very beautifully for festive celebrations. Even though people usually donate fairly good used clothes to the children, we also buy them new clothes intermittently, and we feed them specially during festive celebrations so as to give them a sense of belonging,”
Speaking further, she mentioned, “When we get donations of cows or rams, we slaughter for them to enjoy. We treat these children the way we treat our children at home ,as they eat three square meals. Those who are up to school age are registered in the JMA premier school and they take snacks/biscuit and juice to school every day like other children do. We don’t make them feel they are not with their parents, by virtue of the way we shower them with care and love. We also ensure that they are secured, once it is 5pm we lock the gates, and visitors are not allowed in until 8am the next day. Our neighbours around are also very watchful,”
Since the children are found or picked from different places and under different conditions, Hajiya Maryam said, “We are always on the road to the hospital as most of the children are always down with one sickness or the other , but ‘Alba clinic’ in Kaduna has been assisting the orphanage in the area of medicals for the past 24 -30 years. We don’t buy drugs, he gives us free, offers free admission and consultation. The medical director of the hospital, Dr. Alabi is a great man because almost on a daily basis, we rush to the hospital. Although, we have lost some of the children to illnesses ,because some of the children are found in critical conditions like a baby that was found in a cement bag,”
While she described as inhumane the habit of throwing away or abandoning babies, the coordinator of JMA orphanage stated, “We feel bad about people who throw their babies away, it is really bad. The ones we get to see, we counsel them. One of the factors responsible for such act is the societal belief that having a child outside wedlock is bad, and so to run away from shame or stigma, some people throw away their babies born out of wedlock, kill or even sell them off.”
“We have a baby here that was sold by her biological mother. She was caught when people started asking about the baby ,and due to the so much pressure, she confessed that she had sold the baby to one man. The lady has been prosecuted while the baby is under our care,” she lamented.
JMA premier school
In 1973, JMA decided to build a school to cater for the educational needs of the children at the orphanage, as well as to source for funds to run the orphanage. So when parents pay their ward’s school fees, they are indirectly supporting the orphans and other less privileged children in the home.
The school which started as a crèche and nursery school has grown into a full fledged school with primary and secondary sections. It presently has about 250 students and over 15 working staff. The school was established for the sake of parents who cannot afford to take their wards to private schools and at the same do not want to take them to public schools. Some of the features of the school include a multipurpose science laboratory, a yet to be equipped library, computer laboratory and a skills acquisition centre for women.
It would be recalled that the section accommodating the library and computer laboratory was few years ago gutted by fire ,but it has been rebuilt and yet to be equipped.
According to her, it is a big challenge trying to compete with big private schools around . She also lamented that because the school fees are cheaper than that of its contemporaries, people tend to look down on it in terms of quality and standard of education.
“The standard of the school is quite high and can even be seen in the academic performance of our students and in the results of WAEC and NECO examinations,” she said ,while she appealed to members of the public to patronize the JMA premier school and by extension ,support the needy.
Fostering and adoption of children
Recently, the state government placed a temporary ban on adoption and fostering of children ,pending when it is able to put in place a regulatory framework to guide the process following the rising trend of child trafficking such as buying and selling of children and other forms of child abuse in the state. While the government is beaming its search light on orphanage homes, Hajiya Maryam stressed the need to also check hospitals, where she said children are also brought from ,while some parents abandon their babies in hospitals.
“Government should hasten up the process so that the ban can be lifted ,because it is not good for a child to grow in an orphanage home. The society does not recognize such children. So, the only good thing is for them to get a foster home where they can mix with other children and learn certain skills like how to cook, how to use sanitary pads, how to care for their body. Though, I am sure that this ban seeks to reform the whole process.
To foster or adopt a child from an orphanage, “You will have to go to the social welfare department of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social development to apply. When you apply, they will give you a letter to us and then we will not release the child immediately because we are the ones taking care of the child, so we need to check the person’s ability to cater for the child, and to ensure that the applicant does not want to use the child as a maid or a chef. Once this is confirmed, we will release the child and then we will give the applicant a release letter and send him/her back to the ministry. Then the applicant will be taken to court to stamp some papers. After six months, the social welfare will check on the applicant and the child, because we believe that after six months, the child should be ready for Nursery school , if the child is not enrolled in school, we will retrieve the child.
Following the economic situation of the country, the home is facing some challenges in the area of funds as some parents find it difficult to pay school fees, which by extension affects the running of the home, because donations do not come in as it used to in the past, the coordinator said. “Things are very hard these days. People find it difficult to pay fees, and donations are not coming in like they used to in the past and these children need to feed.
She appealed to well meaning Nigerians to contribute to putting smiles on faces and ,giving life and hope to the hopeless children in the society.
Students’ dreams and aspirations
By virtue of studying in an orphanage school, the students have learnt to be cheerful givers. They are highly motivated by the way and manner the home is showering love and care to the less privileged children; so much that they are eager to grow up, become successful and give back to their society.
Fifteen year old Blessing John of the SS 2 class dreams to become a medical doctor. She aspires to become one of the best surgeons in the world. To achieve this, she said she is determined to study very hard to become what she wants to be. “When I graduate from the University, I plan to open and dedicate a very big hospital to this orphanage where children in the home can access health care free of charge. The home has taught me to be loving and caring ,and to know that there are some people in life that we must give hope, life and a bright future. So I will not allow any child that comes in contact in me to suffer,” she said.
Also, Suleiman Hussein, SS 2 science, wants to become a mechanical engineer ,and dreams to rule the world by extending a hand of fellowship to the needy. “I will build a house for orphans and the less privileged children, provide food, clothing and education to them. The school has taught me to help the needy and as long as it is within my means put smile on the faces of people around me,” he noted.