The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), says it is partnering with Rochas Foundation to establish formal school system within IDPs camps across the country by January 2020.
The Federal Commissioner, NCFRMI, Sen. Basheeru Mohammed disclosed this when Rochas Foundation, led by the founder, Sen. Rochas Okorocha paid him courtesy visit in Abuja on Thursday.
Mohammed said the aim was to reduce the number of out-of-school children among IDPs across the country.
According to him, one of the challenges that Nigeria is facing is providing durable solutions to over 2.3 million internally displaced persons.
“We also have about 1,000 formal and informal IDPs camps spread across the country, in the North-east alone, we have 289 camps and 18 in the FCT.
“As a commission we have scale up interventions in the provision of back to school kits to IDPs children in different camps.
“The Commission has the mandate to coordinate all the humanitarian responses involving Nigerians, which include the refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons as well as the returnees and stateless persons.
“Our focus as the coordinating body for the aforementioned entities is to provide lasting solutions to all through the effective utilization of data, research and planning, so that proper resettlement and reintegration of victims into the system will be achieved,’’ he said.
He also commended Okorocha for his support to Nigerian Children more especially for making education accessible to every Nigerian child.
In his response, Okorocha said that his foundation has the mandate to provide succour to the less privileged, especially the vulnerable children in the society through free and quality education.
He noted that IDPs camps were not a comfortable place as children were exposed to so many challenges.
“So, we are here to partner with the commission to see how we can make life better for these children; we are aware of the fact that government is making a lot of efforts toward addressing this ugly situation.
“But in spite of the effort of the government there are still a lot of challenges, especially in the education sector, so we are here to work out modalities together to address the ugly situation,’’ he said.
According to him, Rochas Foundation has been in the forefront of campaign for free education for the vulnerable.
“We believe that education must be made free so that the children of the poor can go to school,’’ he said.
Okorocha, therefore, encouraged good and privileged Nigerians to assist in ensuring that out-of-school children go back to school.
He said that the Foundation will build a temporary structure in the IDPs camps to encourage learning and teaching in camps, saying that every child counts irrespective of the background.
Rochas Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation, is founded by Rochas Okorocha, a former governor and senator representing Imo West senatorial district at the 9th Nigerian Senate.
The Foundation as a charity organisation has a number of special schools across the country and gives scholarship to the less privileged children in the society. (NAN)