Getting displaced kids to school in Kaduna

Thousands of people, mostly women and children, were forced to relocate from their homes by the Boko Haram insurgency which has wreaked havoc in settlements in  the North East since 2009. The exact number of displaced persons is not clear but more and more people are forced to leave their homes every  day. Internally Displaced […]

Thousands of people, mostly women and children, were forced to relocate from their homes by the Boko Haram insurgency which has wreaked havoc in settlements in  the North East since 2009. The exact number of displaced persons is not clear but more and more people are forced to leave their homes every  day.
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) live in camps managed by government and donor agencies scattered  in many  states in the northern part of the country. They have little access to basic needs of life including right to food, healthcare and education even though many intervention efforts have been intensified to alleviate their sufferings.
As organizations and well-meaning individuals make concerted efforts to help the IDPs, relief materials in kind and cash have been donated to various camps. However, the absence of learning and instructional facilities in the camps has kept most of the kids out of schools.
In Kaduna State, the situation is slightly different from that of the other states. Unlike other states where camps are known and accessible to the people, those in Kaduna were controversial.
There have been arguments, claims and counter-claims in several quarters on whether or not IDPs exist in Kaduna. This continued until recently when a Non-Governmental Organization, the Community Reading and Information Acquisition Skills Initiative (CRISI) discovered over 600 IDPs from the North East living in different parts of Kaduna State.
The revelation following the discovery was that in addition to the IDPs’ plight of food, clothing and shelter, their children have not been attending any school. So, CRISI put up an immediate measure to ensure that the children begin schooling, while free books were distributed to them.
During a recent food and books distributions exercise, the coordinator, Hajiya Maryam Muhammad Barau, said CRISI will do its best to ensure that the displaced children get some level of education wherever they might be within the state.
“We have been able to discover displaced persons in Kaduna despite the arguments, denials and refuting in various quarters that there are no IDPs in Kaduna. Many of them are still traumatized and are suffering untold hardships. We then decided to on our own task ourselves to make sure their welfare becomes our primary concern. Apart from making sure we put smiles on their faces, we also decided to prioritize the education of the children so that knowledge does not pass them by.
“In that respect therefore, we have been able to get books for them. We also have volunteers who will be coming at weekends to teach them on elementary school things. Since the children are not in any camp yet, we are reaching out to them in phases. We began with those in Barakallahu and later we shall be in places like Badarawa, Rigasa, and Kudenda,” she said.
She said the village head of Barakallahu has provided a room that will serve as a classroom for the children, adding that some well-meaning individuals and schools have also agreed to take some of the children. She called on the public to support the displaced children.
In his remarks, the Media Officer of the Initiative, Balarabe Ahmed Sa’id, said their target generally is to reach out to the downtrodden, the neglected and people who are out of formal classrooms and learning experience.
Sa’id noted that even though government was not behind the ordeal of the IDPs, it was still incumbent on it to ensure that the displaced persons resident in the state get good attention, education and support.
Similarly, a humanitarian organization, Dandali Foundation, has resolved to provide quality education to displaced children in the state.
Speaking in Kaduna during the presentation of food items and toiletries to IDPs and orphanages, the member Board of Trustees of the foundation, Umar Saidu Tudun Wada, said as former capital of the northern region, a good and accessible IDPs’ camp should be set up in Kaduna.
 “The influx of IDPs as a result of insurgency in the North East has also affected Kaduna although there is no known and accessible IDPs camp. We learnt that there are many IDPs in Kaduna and they are living in the personal houses of some people. These IDPs are in a very dire situation. Besides, the issue of their children’s education should be paramount.
“We can’t afford to allow the children remain out of school due to their situation. So, any assistance that will be rendered to displaced persons should include ways of educating their children and sending them to school. We as a foundation are committed to that cause. To me, without education, any help rendered to displaced persons is incomplete,” he said.
Tudun Wada called on state governments in the North to give priority to education generally, saying that knowledge is not only power but life.