By Segun Awofadeji in Gombe and Kuni Tyessi
As children continue to bear the brunt of the 12-year conflict in North-east region of Nigeria, the European Union and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have collaborated to provide community-based psychosocial services aimed at improving children’s mental health.
UNICEF has also urged all sides to the conflict to protect children from the short and long-term effects of the conflict.
Through the EU-funded Support to Early Recovery and Resilience Project, which was implemented by UNICEF, at least 5,129 conflict-affected out-of-school children in six local government areas of Borno State are receiving services, including mental health support in safe spaces to strengthen their well-being, resilience, literacy skills and self-reliance.
In a statement released by UNICEF communications expert in Borno State, Folashade Adebayo, the Fund said: “The project also supports vulnerable children across the state with protection and health services, vocational and basic literacy skills, access to justice and security under a holistic humanitarian intervention that has so far provided 15,552 out-of-school children with vocational training; 1,610 out-of-school children with literacy and numeracy skills as well as 5,194 children enrolled into integrated Qur’anic schools across many LGAs.
“More than 300,000 children have been killed in North-east region, while over one million have been displaced. A recent Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) needs assessment of conflict-affected children in the region revealed pervasive psychosocial distress manifesting as high levels of anxiety, suspiciousness, anger, aggressiveness, and hyper-vigilance.”
UNICEF representative to Nigeria, Peter Hawkins, said the scars of conflict are real and enduring for children, adding that several of them have fallen victims of crisis they never started.
He added that stress and violence have been linked to poor brain development, depression and poor self-esteem, and children exposed to conflict and violence are at risk of long-term mental health and psychosocial issues.
According to him, “Too many children in the region are falling victim to a conflict they did not start. Attacks against children must stop immediately. In the meantime, we are committed to working with our partners to provide psychosocial and other support to conflict-affected children so they can regain their childhood and restart their lives.
“UNICEF uses psychosocial support to help conflict-affected children manage their emotions, solve problems, deal with crisis, and maintain healthy relationships.”
In the same vein, the EU Head of Cooperation, Cecile Tassin-Pelzer, said addressing the psychosocial well-being and development of children and teachers in conflict situations is an important part of re-establishing education provision and enabling children to re-enter schools safely.
The EU-funded programme in Borno State is a component of a three-year €10 million European Union Support to Early Recovery and Resilience package to support children, youths, and communities in Borno State. Also included in the package is the provision of vocational skills and non-formal education to at least 25,000 young people, the construction and rehabilitation of learning centres and the strengthening of education management information systems.
