Christian Aid Doles out N53m to 2,415 Households in Benue, Borno, Kaduna

By Adedayo Akinwale

Christian Aid, a faith-based development and humanitarian organisation, has distributed N53,130,000 to 2,415 vulnerable households in Benue, Borno and Kaduna states in August.

It said while 740 households benefited from the cash transfer programme in Benue, 1,080 benefited in Borno and 595 households in Kaduna, adding that the sum of N22,000 was given to each household.

The organisation said the 45 days cash transfer intervention programme would end on September 30, 2020.

The Senior Programmes Officer, Policy and Advocacy of the organisation, Mr. Victor Arokoyo, disclosed this while addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja.

He stated: “One of the things we are also known for is working in hard-to-reach communities because the focus of Christian Aid is to see how we can reduce and eliminate poverty. How we can ensure that system that makes people to be poor are challenged and changed and we bring about happy life for everyone. We work with the vulnerable people, the marginalised, how do we provide the succour for them, these are the things we do.”

“We have a project that we are doing in Kaduna, Borno and Benue states. We are trying to see how we can respond to support the people. The impact of that COVID-19 on everybody, I do not see anyone that is excluded from the impact, but the impact is not the same on everybody. There are people that survive daily means of livelihood, as a result of the disruption of COVID-19, their livelihood was disrupted.

“In Kaduna, we are supporting the poorest of the poor, the people that are seriously marginalised and vulnerable. In fact, they have double tragedy, apart from the pandemic, they also have incidence of conflict. A lot of people are in the IDPs, so we are giving them Non Food Items (NFI), supporting them, some of them in cash, we also have cash distribution where we support families with cash monthly.”

Arokoyo however lamented that increased frequency of cases of killings and kidnappings, especially the recent one that took place at Gadanaji community of Kachia local government in Kaduna State which was reported in the media on 16th of August, 2020 disrupted cash distribution plan but was successfully completed on Tuesday 18th August.
He stressed that one unique aspect of the entire cash programme was that it was linked to the livelihood of the people, adding that people are also trained on how to produce hand sanitiser, things that they produce even after the pandemic.

The organisation said it had also distributed Non Food Items (NFI) to 3,715 households, adding that 1,087 households benefited in Benue, 1,326 in Borno and 1, 302 in Kaduna.
The anti-poverty organisation also revealed that water points renovation had been completed in the three states, with a total of 87 water points renovated and 10 new ones drilled.

It said 720 community influencers across Benue, Kaduna and Borno states were equally trained on COVID-19 WASH and water points repairs and maintenance for increased hygiene practlces and environmental sanitation.

Related Articles