Japan awards N1.4bn grant for IDPs in North-East

The Japanese government has awarded a grant of US$4.5 million (N1.4 billion) to the United Nations Children’s Fund for the provision of life-saving emergency work to assist people affected and displaced by the conflict in the North-East.

The grant will cover assistance in the provision of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities; health, nutrition and child protection services and education and would focus primarily on assistance for children, with special attention given to populations trying to return to their communities which they were forced to flee by Boko Haram insurgents.

A statement by the UNICEF Chief of Communication in Nigeria, Doune Porter on Wednesday in Abuja, showed that the insurgency in the North-East had triggered major population movements, with most recent estimates of people displaced by the conflict in the four most severely-affected states at over 1.7 million – more than half of whom are children.

It quoted the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Jean Gough, as saying that the grant would help to make a tangible difference in the lives of children who have suffered so much.

“The people of Japan are strong supporters of UNICEF’s work to help children and women; This generous grant will help to make a tangible difference in the lives of children who have suffered so much. It will help them to recover physically and psychologically so that they can be children, can go to school and have a brighter future,” Gough stated.

The statement added that with a similar grant last year from Japan, UNICEF and its partners were able to boost primary health care services for people affected by the conflict in more than 100 health facilities in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.

Funding from Japan, it said,  provided more than 65,000 people with clean water and more than 25,000 people with access to safe sanitation, noting that education was improved through creating temporary learning spaces for children in camps for the displaced, stressing that malnourished children were provided with life-saving treatment.

UNICEF said special support was given to children who have been separated from their families by the conflict, and traumatised children were given psychosocial support.

“The Government of Japan believes that primary education, health and nutrition are some of the basic rights of every child anywhere in the world and in this regard, Japan has and will continue to make efforts to ensure that no child is denied these basic rights, no matter the situation,” said Sadanobu Kusaoke, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Nigeria.