12 November 2009
National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) said on Tuesday that it had returned 2,000 street children of different ages to various public primary and secondary schools in Kogi State.
The Coordinator of NAPEP in Kogi, state Dr Grace Gunwa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja that the children were from 500 identified poor families in three senatorial districts of the state.
Gunwa said that four children were selected from each of the identified 500 poor families across 10 local governments of Lokoja, Bassa, Ofu, Adavi, Ajaokuta, Okehi, Omala, Kabba-Bunu, Ijumu and Yagba West.
"It is a maximum of four children per family. We followed laid down procedures in the selection of the children who were evenly selected from 10 communities in each of the 10 local government areas of the state she said".
Gunwa said. The coordinator said that the children were selected by the various community committees, comprising the traditional rulers, clerics, social workers and representatives of women and youths.
She said the beneficiaries were the first under NAPEP's new scheme: Care of the People (COPE), which started in April.
According to her, the programme is fashioned after America's Conditional Cash Transfer Programme and that each of the children was placed on N1,500 per month as feeding allowance.
To ensure sustainability of the programme, Gunwa said that NAPEP had arranged with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to train selected household leaders in any skill of their choice.
"By this, we believe that the children will be prevented from going back to the streets. The programme requires the support of state and local governments to succeed," she added.
NAN
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Daily Champion. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
