Wife of Niger State Governor, Dr. Amina Bello, has appealed to Nigerians to assist in re-integrating orphaned and displaced children through the establishment of orphanage homes that will provide quality care for them.
The call comes as part of efforts to reduce the number of out-of-school children and child beggars in Nigeria.
Dr. Bello made the appeal on Sunday during the foundation laying ceremony of a children’s home in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
She said many children in various Internally Displaced Persons’ camps in the northeast were orphans that needed to be catered for.
The governor’s wife noted that the children’s condition was a fall-out of the activities of Boko Haram insurgents.
“There are thousands, hundreds of thousands of infant orphans that have been affected by this Boko Haram insurgency.
“Apart from that even without the Boko Haram insurgency, you have orphans in the society even though we have an extended family system but there are those unfortunate ones that do not have that system.
“So we really need to contribute to helping these children, nurture them to become great citizens of Nigeria that can also give back to others when they all grow,” Mrs Bello said.
On her part, the founder of the home, Khadijat Fashina, stressed the need for wealthy Nigerians to provide for the less-privileged ones in the country.
She added that taking displaced and orphaned children off the streets would help entrench peace and security in the country.
”For us sisters, it was just a group of sisters that looked into the society and saw the need for it.
“Especially for the Boko Haram scourge, there were so many orphan children around and we felt this was the best time to come into it as it has been a dream for a very long time,” Fashina said.
