IDP kids: Yes, they can party too

At least 2,000 children displaced from their homes in the North-East turned their resident camp at Abuja’s Kunchigoro area to a party ground to mark Children’s Day. It is one of few days in a year they have to feel fulfilled, to belong and to be happy, organisers said. “They have to feel what other […]

At least 2,000 children displaced from their homes in the North-East turned their resident camp at Abuja’s Kunchigoro area to a party ground to mark Children’s Day.
It is one of few days in a year they have to feel fulfilled, to belong and to be happy, organisers said.
“They have to feel what other children like them are feeling. It may be low key but they need to have a sense of belonging and have their fun in their own unique way,” said John Ayeh, who liaises between the displaced communities and the group Life Builders, one of the organisers.
What the party lacked in streamers and balloons, it made up for in gyrating music and shrill laughter of children in school uniforms.
Partying children lugged bags of noodles, biscuit and juice that some eight civil society groups donated, then settled under tents and in tree shades to munch on food hampers. They also lugged clothes, books and other school materials.
Blaring music set the stage for a dance-off as competing pairs gyrated to P-Square’s “She kini” and left spectators cheering in excitement.
“Every child deserves happiness,” said Ayeh. “From our childhood to adulthood, we enjoyed it. It is unfortunate theirs was almost cut off, bringing them all the way from Borno to here is enough issue. But we don’t want them to keep living in that feeling anymore. They are no longer there, as far as here is concerned.”
Isaac Genesis, a JS1 student of School Without Walls, has spent five years of his life displaced from his home in Borno, and this is the first time he’s celebrated Children’s Day.
He says he wants to become a surgeon, if only his country can help him grow into an adult and forget the violence he’s lived through.
“No child should suffer,” said Veronica Umar, coordinator of the non-profit Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF), whose staff and youth corps members donated lunch packs, books and clothes to the children.
“Violence against children should end. Let every child have the opportunity to be educated.”