A humanitarian organisation has launched a back to school programme
targetng about two thousand children from internally displaced persons
camps and rural communities in Abuja.
Hope For All Foundation, which is based in Abuja, launched the first
phase of the scheme on Friday at the Durumi Junior Secondary School
with 38 beneficiaries in an IDP camp and a rural settlement near Games
Village in the Apo area of Nigeria’s federal capital city.
The beneficiaries include 28 children from the IDP camp and 10 from
outside the camp. Fourteen of them are in JSS1, 18 in JSS2 and six in
JSS3.
The group paid the school fees of the students and provided school
bags, textbooks, scandals, socks and other basic materials.
Mathew, a JSS3 student who is one of the beneficiaries said he might
not have made it beyond primary six but for the gesture of the
foundation.
“This is the fourth year that the HFAF has been sponsoring my
education, they picked me up from primary six and till date they
provide me with books, uniforms and other materials I need at school.”
Hadiza Daruge, a woman in the IDP camp, said she had no hope for
education of her children until the foundation came into their lives.
According to Mrs Daruge, beyond the education of children like hers,
the foundation also provides material support for camp dwellers.
Alhaja Zainab, the co-founder of the foundation, said the target of
the foundation is to sponsor a million children to school with special
focus on displaced children and the less-privileged.
