US Govt’s $37m intervention empowers over 350,0000 people in Borno-SCI
No fewer than 350,000 Borno residents have benefited from the United State Government’s $37.5 million empowerment intervention fund.
The Save the Children(SCI), a humanitarian organisation for children made the disclosure at the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)’s Transition and Sustainability Planning Workshop on Wednesday in Abuja.
The SCI- led Maiduguri Metropolitan Council Consortium programme is funded by USAID through BHA to provide essential services to the vulnerable people.
The areas of interest are in food assistance, economic recovery, health, nutrition, protection, shelter and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).
SCI’s Country Director, Mr Duncan Harvey, at the workshop said that the $37.5 million intervention fund programme was being implemented by SCI.
This is being done in partnership with Family Health Initiative (FHI360), Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria(EYN) and Green Concern for Development (GREENCODE).
He said, “SCI has been working in Borno state since 2014 and this project is the latest stage of the support we have been receiving from BHA which is the US government.
“We have reached around 350,000 people, including around 275,000 children who are the core of SCI’s activity.
“The project has been a multi-sectoral intervention, life-saving activities, focusing on health and nutrition, education, and protection.
“And a large component has been a cash-in-voucher programme to provide food assistance to those families.
“Malnutrition has been a big feature of the programme,by providing food assistance for the communities and for children in particular.”
Harvey said that a big focus of the project had also been to address malnutrition in children under the age of five.
He said that a large number of children were receiving emergency supplementary feeding through the health centres that were being supported under the programme in Borno.
According to him, “The programme supports tens of thousands of people with food assistance in order to address the underlying issues of malnutrition in the communities monthly.”
Chief of Party for BHA, Mr Andrew Simbwa, said the Save the Children led Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and Jere Conssortium programme partners have been working across 34 communities in Maiduguri.
Simbwa said that the programme reaches more than 250,000 households monthly with food assistance, especially during the lean season.
He added that BHA was also working with health facilities to provide drugs and support all the services being provided in the health facilities.
Simbwa said that the programme has provided a stabilisation centre with only 34 beds for children with malnutrition complications at the beginning but later increased the number of bed spaces to 50 because of the support from the project.
He added, “So, that means children with malnutrition and complications are able to get the services they need.
“We are also having groups in communities where we are supporting caregivers to make sure that the children who are moderately malnourished get prepared local recipes from their homes, so that these children do not deteriorate into severe cases of malnutrition.’’
Simbwa said the project provided cash grants to more than 9000 households ranging from between N100,000 and N200,000 .
He said, “So they could set up different types of businesses from roadside trading to tailoring, phone charging and to sustain their living.”
Simbwa said that while 31,875 households received food assistance through e-vouchers from the programme, 17,308 children were directly reached with various child protection services, with additional 246,902 children reached through nutrition.
He further said that under health, the programme provided 197,519 outpatient consultation services, while over 21,090 individuals were reached in WASH, 3,010 households and 16,000 individuals were reached in shelter and settlement among others.
The District Heads of Ajiri, Yakub Bakura, commended USAID-BHA and SCI for the interventions in his communities.
According to Bakura, his district is one of the most affected due to insurgency, with a lot of vulnerable persons.
“Since the Boko Haram insurgency,Save the Children is one of the strong NGOs that has contributed enormously to our well-being .
“This is in the area of livelihood support, building resilience and early warning mechanisms to enhance community feed development among others.
“In Mafa, we have three districts and SCI has worked incredibly in two of the most affected districts in the Zannari Kaleri community and in Malakyarir as well as in Muna, IDP camps where most of my communities are displaced.
“So, we commend SCI for providing livelihood support, shelter, food and non-food items for us as well as children’s education.”
