By Magnus Eze and Fortune Eloagu
Remember Olajumoke Orisagunna, the young lady who hit stardom while hawking bread in Lagos early this year? She has vowed to continually give back to the society.
Orisagunna opened her deep well of kindness to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at New Kuchingoro Village in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) on June 2, and donated food items to the victims of series of insurgents’ attacks from Borno State.
While handing over the items to the inmates; the celebrity said it would be inhuman to abandon fellow human beings that experience hardship.
Orisagunna, who was recently appointed Ambassador of Shirley’s Confectionery, one of the leading confectioneries in the nation’s capital, said it was part of her social responsibility to give back to the society.
Accompanied by the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of Shirley`s Confectionery, Amarachi and Adaora Iwuanyanwu respectively, she promised to make it a continuous exercise with a view to ensuring that the less privileged feel her impact positively.
Orisagunna said similar largesse would be extended to other IDPs camps and called on governments at all levels and philanthropists to come to the aid of displaced persons with generous donations.
“I am glad to give out to the less privileged. I will also visit other places to help out and donate to them”, she said.
Responding on behalf of the displaced persons, Mrs. Alheri Kumbo, who had been in the camp since 2014, thanked Orisagunna and Shirley`s Confectionery for the gesture, and implored governments and other well-meaning Nigerians to come to their aid.
She appealed to the government not to relent in the efforts being made to flush out insurgents in the North-East, saying there is no place like home.
A total of 1,934,765 displaced persons are currently living in formal camps, host communities and satellite camps in liberated communities due to insurgency in North-East.
The displaced families are largely dependent on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the FCT Emergency Agency (FEMA) and random acts of kindness from the local community, religious bodies, philanthropists and public spirited individuals from across the country.
The Director of FEMA, Alhaji Idris Abass, recently said the challenges of the IDPs were complex, revealing that thousands of them were spread across 21 camps in the FCT.
Abass said: “We have 21 locations in the FCT now and over 21,000 IDPs spread across the FCT. Those are the ones we have captured. There are so many other ones and on daily basis, they keep coming to the FCT.
“The major challenge is that we do not have funds. Secondly, people are not humanitarian enough to make the IDPs feel a sense of belonging. Otherwise, those people need assistance, yet, we have people who are able to give out little from their own, but find it difficult because Nigerians do not entirely render humanitarian service.”, he said.