Forty-three persons at the Home for the Needy Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Uhorgua, Edo State, will graduate from tertiary institutions of learning at the end of the ongoing academic session.
The coordinator of the camp, Pastor Solomon Folorunsho, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday.
Folorunsho said the soon-to-be graduates were in various tertiary schools across the country studying engineering, medicine, accounting, nursing, law, business administration, pharmacy, and laboratory technology.
He also said 147 displaced persons in the camp recently completed the Senior Secondary School Examination (SSCE).
According to him, “we were able to register 147 of our children for the just-concluded NECO and NABTEB examinations.
“In fact, 140 of the 147 students sat for the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination, and they did very well. One person scored above 300, and more than 123 scored above 200.
“However, we are expecting admission for about 145 of them, taking into cognisance the released cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions by JAMB some time ago.’’
The coordinator also told NAN that six IDPs were undergoing the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme while five were recently called to the Nigerian Bar.
“You are aware that five of our children were called to the Nigerian Bar last month; those will be practising in the Supreme Court, because that is the Bar they were called to,’’ he said.
Folorunsho, however, said it had not been easy taking care of them, especially regarding their feeding and education, as there were more than 4,000 displaced persons in the camp.
“Despite the success story from the camp on these children, I must confess that it hasn’t been easy feeding more than 4,000 survivors and funding the education of those in schools and the children.
“Sometimes we barely have enough food for them, and honestly, my heart breaks at such times seeing the children looking up to me, and maybe at that moment I can’t do anything.
“These situations are quite often, and that is because we don’t get assistance from any government, except a few individuals and a few clerics.
‘’None of these big corporate organisations, which are always in the news over one charity donation or the other, has even assisted us, maybe some time in the past, yes, but since COVID-19, I think not.
‘’I must tell you this, some time ago, when we heard that musician David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido was donating funds to orphanages and the needy, we seriously prayed and hoped that we would be lucky with him, but sadly, we were not,’’ he said.
Folorunsho said that in spite of the challenges, he was undaunted as he and his team would not allow the dreams of the youth to die.
“Yes, before insurgency made them leave their ancestral homes, they had dreams, so we will not allow their dreams to die; instead, we will strive and nurture them to realise those dreams.
“That is what we want to continue to do. It is what we have the pleasure of doing. We don’t care whether you are a Christian or Muslim or you are none of the two, but have a good heart.
‘’You want to be somebody. You want to develop your potential. We want to stand with you. Not because we own anything, but because we have the passion and want to draw people into it,’’ he added.
He therefore called on Nigerians to join the camp’s management to help the survivors achieve their dreams.
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