By Princess Simon (Bureau Chief North Central, in Minna)
A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), the Society for Alleviation of Rural Poverty and Integration of Peaceful coexistence (SARPIC), has distributed relief items to over 1,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Shiroro local government area of Niger state.
Founder of the NGO, John Agmada Bawa, said the gesture is part of measures by the NGO to reach out to the helpless and the needy in Niger state, particularly the IDPs, who were forced out of their ancestral homes by armed bandits.
Bawa who led other members of the NGO to distribute the items, including clothing materials to two IDPs camp at Government Day Secondary Schools in Shiroro and Zumba, called for more support from well-spirited individuals and corporate organizations to support the less privileged in the society.
SARPIC, a community-based NGO in Niger state, according to Bawa, is with a mission not only to build a cycle of love and support-base around those in distress and in need of help but to enable them to live their normal lives.
The intervention through the organization's Community Resilience Action Through Provisions of a Livelihood Support project, he said, is targeted at reaching out to over 3,000 IDPs with clothing materials, food items, health outreach, formal education, and entrepreneurship training.
Bawa in an interview with NIGERIAN NEWS-LEADER shortly after the distribution said, “This intervention is for victims of insurgency displaced from their homes and communities. We are soliciting for more support from friends and corporate organizations to ameliorate the plight of the IDPs”.
Many had no food to eat or clothes to wear as they might have lost all household items, or obviously fled without personal belongings, including family members. “Many are sick but no drugs, so we are here for them. This is about service to God and to humanity”.
Bawa who prayed that God should end terror attacks and siege against the nation and Nigerians someday, however, assured that subsequent interventions would be basically food items, medical interventions, entrepreneurship training, and possible granting of scholarships to bright children who had dropped out of school to enable them to return to school on account of the attacks.
Responding on behalf of the beneficiaries, the District Head of Galadima-kogo, Malam Umaru Aliyu, expressed appreciation to SARPIC and other individuals who had contributed towards their wellbeing.
Meanwhile, some of the victims in an interview with this newspaper, recalled their horrible experience in the hand of the armed bandits that would forever linger in their memories. They narrated how the armed bandits killed their children, burnt some of their relatives alive, slaughtered their nephews and also set houses and food barns ablaze when they raided their community. NNL.
