…FG needs to intensify effort in tackling rising insecurity – Initiative

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – OVER 1,900 Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Durumi Camp, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, Friday, received three in one intervention from a nonprofit organization, Two Mites Missions, Nigeria to ameliorate their plight.

The Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Two Mites Missions, Emmanuel Ayoola, explained that the organization under its education and humanitarian support initiative provides immediate medical outreach and basic health support to displaced children, women, and families in the camp; improve awareness of health, hygiene, and disease prevention practices among camp residents; strengthen the economic resilience of women and youth through skills acquisition and empowerment activities; and promote policy advocacy aimed at drawing government attention to the rights and needs of internally displaced persons.

Ayoola said: “Two Mites Mission is invested in resourcing and supporting vulnerable communities.

“This intervention at the IDP camp in Abuja is a three-pronged program that will provide humanitarian support, education and skill acquisition and an advocacy on the Economic, Social and Cultural rights of the community.”

He also added that, “Our vision is a world where every vulnerable child and family thrives with dignity, hope and purpose.”

Meanwhile, speaking on the sidelines of the event, the Country Programme Manager, Two Mites Mission, Nigeria, Bamidele Ogunsanya, explained that the intervention is targeted at members of the IDP camp who are affected by Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East region of Nigeria.

“Predominantly, the people here are from Goza and Bama communities in Borno State, North-East Nigeria. Now, the intervention we have here in this camp is in three components.One is education, health, and skill acquisition. For the education, we will be teaching the children basic science, English, Maths, and computer science.

“For the medical intervention, we have three components of drugs we are dispensing, malaria, multivitamins due to nutritional deficiency that are very prevalent in the camp due to their economic status, deworming of the children, we also giving them malaria medications and the like. For the skill acquisition, and awareness creation on personal hygiene.

“The women will be trained on hair making because the fashion industry globally is over $2.5 trillion industry. Why just the hair section is over $150 billion worth industry globally. So, if the women can learn this skill, it is possible for them to tap into this pool of wealth that abound in the fashion industry that they are able to make ends meet, get back on their feet, they are able to get back into society, become more productive, and become more independent. So, that is why we are here in the IDP camp.

“Projected for health care alone, we had over 1,350. That was the provision we made for health care. For education, we are focusing on 450 children, for the three subjects we have just listed, and then for the skill acquisition, we are focusing on 15 women for the next two months that will be learning those basic skills, and as such, we’re looking for a very productive programme.

“So like I said, for the health care, Shalom Health Foundation, we also have done a foundation partner with us to provide the children in the school with some basic needs, like snacks and the rest of it, while they undergo the programme for the next two months.”

According to him, the Founder of Two Mites Mission, Emmanuel Ayoola, funds their activities, “This is self-funded by the Founder of Two Mites Initiative, Emmanuel Ayoola. It’s not a funded project, but we are hoping that through our advocacy and campaign we will be able to raise funds to sustain the Human Capital Development Project that is going on in this camp.

“Nations don’t just develop based on resources, ations develop based on their human capital, and as such, there is a need for upscale, and there is a need to sustain this effort in order for us to have a better Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, he called on the Federal Government to intensify effort to tackle the current insecurity challenges that drives people out of their communities’ to IDP camps, pointing out that the level of funding such humanitarian crisis is fast dwindling and that has made it difficult for organisations such as his to intervene in the camps.

However, the beneficiaries of the intervention expressed appreciation for the millions of Naira spent to ameliorate their plight.

One of the beneficiaries, Fatima Ali, said the intervention affords her the opportunity to learn in hair-making as a stylist, which will empower her and make her self-reliable and resilient amid the economic challenges.

Ali also said had learned on how to practice personal hygiene and how to take it to her family, meanwhile she is immensely grateful to Two Mites Mission and its partners whom have come to change their story.

Another beneficiary, Esther e
Ejima who appreciated the intervention said, “We are grateful and appreciate your effort, and honestly, coming here, we really appreciate you because we have already learned a lot from you about personal hygiene, and the hair making. As a hair maker, you need personal hygiene.

“This intervention will go a long way to change our condition that has not been palatable for all these years we have left our communities and ran to this IDP Cam in Area 1, Abuja.

“We will put all these health awareness into practice and will also teach our children. Once again we say thank you to Two Mites Missions.”

Meanwhile, one of the partners of Two Mites Missions, Assistant Administrator, Africa Arise International, said they are handling the education intervention of Two Mites Missions.

“Two Mites Missions is partnering with us to aid the children’s access to education and to help boost their knowledge by starting a summer lesson during the holidays, a two-month summer lesson that would be inclusive, would involve teaching the children math, English, computer science, and basic science.

“We are providing free education. First of all, we started with free education. We visited the IDP camps and we observed that the basic need, what was lacking majorly for these children was education because of where they are coming from, the trauma they had experienced, and insurgency, a lot of them were out of school.

“In fact, 90% of the children, the population were out of school, and so that was why we created Arise Academy”, Oloyede added.