Victims Support Fund provides education support to 150,000 Northeast children

The Victims Support Fund (VSF), an NGO, says it has constructed schools and provided other forms of educational support to 150,000 children in Northeast Nigeria.

Its Director, Dr Sunday Ochoche, who made this known at a peace-building forum on Thursday in Maiduguri, said that the projects were executed in communities ravaged by Boko Haram insurgency.

“We have engaged the states and victims of the insurgency in the area of education.

“We have promoted healthcare, economic recovery efforts and enhancement of livelihood capacities as well as protection of children, especially through our foster care programme.

“We can proudly say that no other agency has shown physical presence and impacted on the lives of the victims of insurgency in the Northeast as the Victim Support Fund has done.’’

Ochoche said that academic activities had begun in 16 schools built in Askira-Uba; Damboa, Chibok and Hawul, while work was on-going and at various completion stages in eight other communities in the area.

According to him, the fund also distributed books and instructional materials to more than 150,000 children affected by conflict in various communities in the Northeast.

The director added that the fund also rehabilitated 18 health facilities, including the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) and supplied drugs and equipment to them, to strengthen referrals and treatment of victims of insurgency.

Ochohe said that more than 20,000 women had been enrolled and supported with live goats under the fund’s economic empowerment programme to engage in livestock production.

“Hundreds of vulnerable families have been captured in our Foster Care initiative in which each of the deserving families receive between N14,000 and N20,000 monthly stipend for the upkeep of their children.

“The fund also distributed fertiliser, agricultural inputs and animals to households, while tractors were provided to communities, to promote agricultural activities in the resettled communities,” he said.

According to him, the VSF in collaboration with the Borno State Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RRR), rebuilt public structures at Dikwa, Bama, and Gowza.

He said project works were on-going at Mobbar and Gamboru-Ngala local government areas of the state.

Ochoche further disclosed that the fund was working closely with community and religious leaders as well as other stakeholders, towards reconciliation and restoration of peace in the region.