From Adanna Nnamani and Esther Akwete, Abuja
The Africa Youth Growth Foundation (AYGFA), says it has positively changed the lives of over 5 million people in the area of migration through its various advocacies and campaigns over the years. 
AYGFA, Executive Director, Dr. Arome Salifu disclosed this Wednesday in Abuja during the organization’s 16th Anniversary celebration and Town Hall Meeting.
Salifu stated that the foundation was striving to further intensify and escalate the advocacy surrounding the present trend of people leaving the nation in order to make sure they do so in a secure and lawful manner.
According to him, the current massive exodus  of citizens other countries can not be faulted considering the socio-economic situation of the country.
“Truly the issue of people leaving the country is directly connected to the level of economic and the socio-security and of course the physical security challenge in the country, naturally you know every human being will want the best for themselves so if the economic situation is not supporting their dreams and aspirations and they find leaving the country as a best alternative you won’t be able to stop them from doing that and also if the security situation is not guaranteeing their safety you also will not stop anyone from leaving with their families, these are the realities of our current situation however what we do as an organization is to see how we can empower Nigerians, Africans to know and to be in the position to take a formed decision on their migratory decision as to leave the country or not go leave the country and if they have to leave country they have to know the process and the way and manner they could leave safely,orderly and with dignity.” He noted.
According to the ED, the foundation, which was established more than 20 years ago with the intention of making a positive difference in the lives of youth, the poor, and the vulnerable, has had a lot of success in its activism, particularly in the areas of livelihood, migration, public health, education, governance, and climate change through a variety of funded and unfunded projects.
“we have enrolled over 500,000 beneficiaries and provided over two million nutritional services to households and families (pregnant and lactating women and children of under 5) in Nigeria particularly under the World Bank funded Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRIN) project. Also, we have
“successfully worked with the IOM, German Government and several Nigerian government ministries and agencies to impact over 5 million lives on migration and development supports and advocacies. We have also supported the Nigerian government with registration of over 50,000 thousand Nigerians and IDPs with their biometrics under the ongoing NIN registration exercise after been issued the licence by NIMC. These and many more are some of our impact stories.”
Commenting on some of the vision of the organization, he said: “Our vision for the next four years is to go global and establish our development presence in several African countries. Programmatically, for the next four years and in accordance with our Gad vision, we plan to get 2 million out of school children back to school under our Street to School project, Plant 1 million tree under our Earth Restoration Campaign, support 5 million migrants in Nigeria, Canada, US, UK and Europe under our Migration Information and Communication Campaign (MICC campaign) and support 5 million households and families with livelihood and nutritional supports, among others”
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, the Commissioner of health, Niger state Muhammad Makusid lauded the efforts of AYGF in the eradication of malnutrition among children and anemia in pregnant women in the state through the ANRiN project.
Represented by ANRiN project Manager for the state, MR Shehu Muhammad, the Commissioner said: “AYGF is operating in partnership with the state, providing these basic nutrition services for women and children for the past one year that it has been in existence in the state and within this short period, we have been able to reduce the cases of severe malnutrition especially from the hard to reach communities.
“Also, anemia in pregnancy has drastically reduced. Reports from the secondary health care facilities and some of the anti natal clinics have shown us that the cases of anemia in pregnancy has reduced because these supplements have been going door to door at the communities.”