150 Jigawa indigent children get education support

FILE PHOTO: students receiving lesson the under tree

No fewer than 150 less privileged children in Hadejia, Jigawa, have benefitted from an education support programme initiated by an NGO, Association for Advancement of Women in Nigeria (ASSAWIN).

The Programme Manager of ASSAWIN, Mrs Ameachina Chinelo, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Hadejia on Tuesday that the organisation had been providing the education support in the last two years.

Ameachina said that the NGO distributed school uniforms, bags, shoes, books and other instructional materials to the children selected from 20 primary and junior secondary schools in the area.

She said that the gesture was to encourage enrolment and retention in school.

“This is part of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Initiative to support the education of less privileged children.

“We also secured over 30 birth certificates of children whose mothers could not do so following the death of their fathers,” she said.

Ameachina added that the organisation trained over 200 mothers in the area under the first and second batches of its skill acquisition programme.

She listed the skills to include tailoring and shoe, bag, bead and soap-making.

She told NAN that the NGO gave sewing, weaving and grinding machines to the mothers to enable them to be self-reliant.

The manager said that the programme was designed to empower mothers to improve their social and economic wellbeing.

“We also provided support for persons with disability and internally displaced persons with a view to checking the menace of street begging,” she said.

Ameachina said that the organisation had also conducted malaria awareness campaign to control the disease and enhance family health at the grassroots.

She said that the organisation, in collaboration with the state government, had initiated various programmes aimed at reducing poverty and enhancing wealth creation.