From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
Thousands of Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs), mainly children and their caregivers, in three camps in Guma Local Government Area, (LGA), of Benue state have benefitted from United Nations Children Fund, (UNICEF) interventions on Sexual and Gender Based Violence, (SGBV), Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, (MHPSS).
UNICEF, in collaboration with its local partners, JASPI Health and Gender Development Initiative and Benue Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, (BERWASSA), handed over the materials to the IDPs with a call on the state government, donor partners and stakeholders to to double efforts to curtail issues of Sexual and gender based violence in the camps and everywhere in the state.
Speaking at Ortese IDP camp, the Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Enugu Field Office, Mr. Victor Atuchukwu, who noted that one of the core mandates in UNICEF is to see that “children and women are protected everywhere, anywhere and anytime, said the intervention is focused on preventing and responding to Sexual and Gender Based Violence, (SGBV), in IDP camps and for beginning with three IDP camps in Guma LGA; Ortese, Uikpam and Mbawa IDP camps.
He explained that they carried out a safety audit in August 2023, to understand the situation of IDPs in terms of safety and protection of women, children and girls in these IDP camps and during the audit, incidences of violence against children in terms of sexual harassment and abuse were recorded.
He said to ensure a sustained protection and prevention of violence against children, UNICEF made the communities to buy into the programme. “And with this, we engaged the community members and camp chairmen and camp managers as well as the government actors and we discuss the findings from the auditing.
“So from August till now, we engage with the local partner, JASPI to have this intervention and one of the key achievements of the programme is the communities owning the process. Now, we have the presence of BERWASA, Doctors Without Border Medicines and Frontieres, (MSF), and the community being in the front and I think this will bring a lasting solution.”
Atuchukwu said UNICEF is also providing case management for children, identifying children that are having issues of protection, strengthening the awareness and sensitization of people and improving reporting and access to reporting for the survivors of GBV in the camps.
He said UNICEF intervention is a call to action for the government and all the relevant stakeholders to also reach out to other IDP camps and children and women in other places in Benue state to see that they are protected, they continue to learn, interact and be happy.
He also called of the federal and state government to addressed the issued that led to their displacements to enable that go back Jonas the camps are not a perfect environment to stay.
“Peace is the foundation of what the United Nation does. So as much as we are intervening and making them happy here, we also want to call on all the relevant actors to see that efforts are doubled to ensure that there is peace in their communities so that they can go back to their homes to reintegrate and continue their lives because there is no better environment than the family environment for a child. Overall, we want to make sure that the issues of GBV is continued to be addressed in the camps,” he said
The Executive Director, JASPI Health and Gender Development Initiative, Doosuurshater Agbata, said they have done training and sensitization on GBV, SGBV and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, (MHPSS) in the three camps
She said they trained 43 social workers; 22 people from the camp and 21 social workers on response and protection for MHPSS, GBV, SGBV, and parenting. “We were able to construct a football and volleyball post for the camps. We also constructed a playground for Uikpam camp, some complaint boxes because during our intervention, we discovered they didn’t have complaint boxes to give feedback on the issues they have in the camps.
“We also provided other Psychosocial support materials such as Ludo, draft, skipping ropes, toys for the children among other materials for their mental health so they don’t get depressed.
“We also have parents who are depressed pouring their aggression back on the children. So we incorporated caregivers and parents so that when they have something doing, they won’t be depressed and the children will not have to bear the brunt of their depression and anger.
“So today we are doing the unveiling and it’s for the three camps for them to go back to their camps with their PSS materials to start using them.
“We are expecting to see change in the IDP camps; behavioural change especially in the parents, how they treat their children, we’re expecting to see that this children are able to open up and give feedbacks when they have problems,” she said
The General Manager BERWASSA, Mr. Tony Mkpen commended UNICEF, JASPI Health and Gender Development Initiative and other partners for taking the lead to end SGBV in IDPs camps in the state.
Represented by the Accountant of the Agency, Mr. Gbarave Ortaver, the General Manager urged parents to desist from negative acts that could be emulated by children and wards particularly SGBV and other acts that are inimical to the wellbeing of the child.
Other stakeholder, Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Ann Itodo-Benjamin, State Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Mr. Yakubu Ibrahim the Officer in Charge of Gender desk, Benue State Police Command, Chief Superintendent, CSP, Ann Ameh among others all made commitments to uphold the fundamental rights of the Benue child and to ensure that SGBV is stamped out of the Benue society.
CSP, Ann Ameh also advised that people should be acquainted with the provisions of the Child Right Law to better appreciate the rights of the child in the state.
Items distributed to the three camps includes car toys, building blocks, Ayo or Daagh, Ludo, Skipping robes, flute, rubiks cube and Vuvuzela, Alphabets and numbers, packs of cardboard papers, packs of sharpener, containers for packing toys, complaint boxes, footballs, Volley balls, two volleyball posts and one reconstructed as well as two football posts and one reconstructed post.
Others includes drawing books, packs of pencils, color pencil, crayon, story books, football and volleyball nets, Whot, Football shoes, Jerseys, Toys, Badminton racket, Badminton balls and three UNICEF recreation kit boxes among several other items. The event also witnessed a novelty football match between Blocks Q and F of the Ortese IDPs camp children