Ambazonia Conflict: 600 Cameroonian refugees receive household items
From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
At least 60 households and 600 displaced children have received millions of naira worth of household items at the Ukende Refugee settlement in Ogoja , Cross River state.
The beneficiaries comprise largely of the families of refugees who were displaced as a result of the ongoing political unrest in neighbouring Cameroon.
The donation is courtesy of the Save the Children International (SCI) a non-profit organization which is the largest independent organisation for children.
The Field Operations Manager (FOM), SCI, Mr Oluseyi Abejide said as part of activities to commemorate Humanitarian Day which recognizes the efforts and sacrifices of all humanitarian actors, they decided to celebrate with Cameroonian refugees especially the children.
Filed Operations Manager represented by, Education in Emergency Officer, Mr Oyeniyi Omopariola said their aim was to ensure that they gave a sense of belonging to everyone going through one crisis or the other either caused by man or natural disaster and the Cameroonian refugees living in Ukende were not left out.
“Having recognised some of the challenges and the struggles of the refugees we decided to package some token to be distributed to 64 households who are primarily foster parents giving care to the children who were separated from their parents as a result of the crisis these are mainly the target of these gift items today.
“We are deeply concerned about their wellbeing, SCI has two main sectors here in Ogoga, first is the water, sanitation, hygiene, the department sector that ensures that the refugees have access to portable water, good toilet facilities.
“The other sector is the child protection department which identifies children that are at risk of sexual abuse in all forms and place them in child friendly spaces and ensure that children who have gone through trauma are able to gather in the evenings learn different skills just to get over their trauma,” he said.
On his part , the Chairman of Partners Table , Mr. Nne Franklin, said they were commemorating world humanitarian day not just to honour humanitarian actors for contributions they have made so far for humanity but to also celebrate the refugees.
He averred that humanity was very important and they consider people first and today were celebrating world humanitarian day and that would not be possible without the displaced persons
“If we don’t protect them then we are not called humanitarians so our aim is to protect them and ensure they are save no matter what”, he said.
One of the beneficiaries, Mr Odu Simon who has 12 children under his care lauded SCI for the gesture noting that he understands that that times were really hard but Save the Children International still found a way to reach out to them.
“I thank the Cross River state government , and Nigeria for allowing you stay here in Ogoja , I also appreciate SCI for giving us food , it’s not ready to help somebody especially with the way things are”, Mr Odu said.
