General news
Ramadan: Foundation, Israeli Embassy donate food items to IDPs
Mr Dauda Ibrahim-Daura, Executive Secretary, Brand Life Vision Foundation, has donated 200 cartons of food items to support Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), during the 2020 Ramadan fasting.
Daura while delivering the items on Thursday at the IDPs camp in Durumi, Abuja, said the items were donated by the foundation in partnership with the Israeli Embassy in Nigeria.
He also said that the food items were put together in collaboration with ChabadAid, MAG Tech System Ltd, Heritage Bank, Pugan Technologies and Kings of the World, all NGOs.
“We were here last year, so this time, we remembered them with our partners from Israel and they contributed some food items.
“We feel that they are the people that need these items the most, that is why we have decided to take them to our brothers and sisters.
“Everybody knows that we are all in hard times. It is a global challenge the world is faced with economic hardship, so, it is not only in Nigeria.
“We implore everybody, who has the ability to assist, to reach out to the IDPs, because they are more faced with hardship.
“Government is doing its best, but more needed to be done by private organisations to achieve the desired goal in lending helping hands to them.
“50 per cent of our problems in the society will be solved if we go beyond religious and political divide, and show love to IDPs and less privileged,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, Hajiya Binta Sidi, Executive Director of the Foundation, expressed appreciation over the assistance given to the women in the IDPs camp.
According to her, it is a thing of joy seeing that women were assisted in the IDPs camp.
She said that when it comes to the aspect of politics, more votes come from women and their children. So, why should they not be helped?
“That is why we think we should show our passion, our vision and mission by coming down to distribute the food items.
“We are feeding 600 IDPs in Kano and Yobe States respectively. Last year we did 600 in Kano and 600 in Yobe as well.
“For now, we brought 200 cartons of food items, but we are thinking of enrolling 20 IDPs children of both sexes in school after the Eid-el Fitr.
Sidi explained that the choice of the children would not be based on their tribe or religious background.
She further said that providing education for the children was in the bid to support the women, adding that there was no gift greeater in life for a growing child than basic education.
Meanwhile, Mr Idris Halilu, Coordinator and Spokesperson of Abuja-based Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), thanked the foundation for the donation.
Halilu said, “I am happy that the gesture was carried out without tribe or religion bias.
“The IDPs in Durumi, Abuja, and Nigeria at large, thanked the foundation for their kind gesture and for the group that came together to donate during the COVID-19 lockdown and Ramadan.”
He mentioned that the IDPs camp has a total of 2,830 people, including men, women and children.
He said that the inability to access quality healthcare service delivery was the main challenge of the IDPs in the camp and appealed to the Federal Government to intervene.
In a remark, Mr Ibrahim Ahmadu, Chairman of the Durumi IDPs Camp, urged the government to prioritise the wellbeing of IDPs, to ensure better future for them.
“We want the government to provide for our wellbeing; we will like to go back to our home town.
“Most people in the camp are concerned about the poor settlement of their home community. If it is settled, we will return,” Ahmadu said.
He said that life in the camp was mostly sustained through communal living, sharing in love of any donation we had to the 11-groups that we have.
For her part, Mrs Liyatu Ayuba, Women Leader of the Durumi IDPs Camp, thank the foundation, saying that it was not the first time the organisation would be visiting the IDPs.
Ayuba said, “It is indeed true that women have responsibility to cater for their children at the home front.
“We have widows among us and they take responsibility to fend for their children; we also have women here with their husbands who are not doing anything,” she said.
She, however, said that women formed the least chunk of the population at the IDPs camp with approximately total of 185-200.
The Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organisation that seeks to give succour to less privileged women and children.
Edited By: Bola Akingbehin/Felix Ajide (NAN)