Nigeria, Village Care Initiatives

This is a brief report compiled by Lucky. We embark on visitation soon and will bring in a more detailed report. Thanks!

Biliri : we are currently digging wells although due to the nature of our land most have not reached water level. We are also working on improving the standard of the existing wells. We have all agreed to gather money for purchase of chemicals to purify the source of drinking water in the community, every family is registered in respect to this. The registered children are still benefiting from the exercise books and soaps provided by the committee.

G/zalla : sanitation takes place nightly by sweeping the community surroundings. Calculators and higher notebooks are being given to students in tertiary institutions. The youths behavior is rapidly improving by respecting parents, leaders and elders. problems; we need scholarship for all registered children, we need bed nets and chemicals especially as raining season approaches, parents participation in the entire program is discouraging.

Amanawa : Adult education teachers were presented with gifts to encourage them, more trees have been planted, gifts will be given to the three(3) best cleaned houses. There is a plan to bring all registered children for prayers. The economic security group is still contributing money.

Abuja : Kaba, Kagini, Bagusa, Guidna and T/wakili are all working towards organizing a re-training for all the committees in the communities.

Bwonpe : The 50 registered children have been provided with books, soaps and other learning materials to keep them keep clean and enhance their learning. The committees visited and challenged 74 individual homes and some fellowship groups mostly women and youths on the practices and the expected outcomes.

More families and groups are inviting us to sensitize as well as educate them on how to start as well as maintain the practices. Currently in Bwonpe, the homes and children look cleaner. Everyone is doing his/her best to maintain regular nutritious diet, some of the youths who are school drop-outs, drunks, smokers and thieves have indicated interest to change some of them registered to be part of the extra morals classes which shall begin as soon as schools vacate.

The committee took an extra step, buying soap and washing the clothes of some mentally challenged persons. More seedlings were acquired in preparation for the next planting season to boost economic security.

Sokoto: The number of pupils in the extra morals classes have increased to 74, some parents are finding it difficult to pay the N200 charge for each child. One of the two (2) teachers (a youth corper) will soon live,which means there will be future need to look for another. With the current move by the police authority to have schools in all barracks we hope that our effort will be boosted soon. Our needs have been for permanent structure as the used place will soon be taken over for the recruits training others include chalks, desks and other learning materials.

From Phillips

Our program is a community based program based on the need to develop and not envelope the communities. In all the communities we work and the children we are helping we have a commitment first by the guardians of the children to contribute do something for their children, and the community also make a commitment based on their identified need to do something to help the children in crises on outcomes and practices for the children of their community.

First of all, we make sure that the children we are working with are safe. This means that both the guardians and the community agree with us what safety is and work together to see that these children are cared for and protected, they are not exploited or abused. Basically we provide alot of information here working with professionals in promoting how children should be kept safe.

Second, our training program includes that children are made to be ' At Home'. What this means can be defined by the communiy but the underlying principle is that we see children happy with their lives. The families also see to it that all children we are working with, have their homes, beddings, cloths, toilets, nails . . . are kept clean. They also ensure that children have a bed of their own above the ground. Beds are provided with beddings, latrines constructed, repaired to good hygiene standards, boreholes are constructed and well repaired,

Third, we also ensure that the children are kept healthey by obsersing some simple hygiene practices. Washing, bathing etc. Parents and the entire community are also trained on how to prevent, identify and treat minor illnesses and how to set up medical facilities that will help the community. Here mosquitor nets are provided, soaps, beds and bedings, supplements, drugs, hospital bills, training on HIV/AIDS prevention, counselling, testing and retroviral drugs through other NGOs. Nutritional information is also provided but that by itself come with the buying of food, planting of fruit trees, and supplements

Fourth, our communities also ensure that all children are in schooll and not just that, but that each child is individually succeeding in school. This is usually a community effort along with VC to supply school materials, provide scholarships and provide appropriate facilities that will stimulate learning and educational programs.

Fifth, we also ensure that apart from having children be in school, healthy, at home and keeping safe, that they are also behaving well in the community. Keeping to community rules and becoming contributing members of their community. This means that these children are made to keep away from drugs, alcohol, and not become sexually active.

Our entire program's success is hinged by what we call COMMUNITY PRACTICES. Here each community would have to ask and agree to do something to change the living standard of their own community. In each tarining we ask the following questions;

- What, as an individual, can i do to help myself

- What can i do to help my family

- What can i do to help my community

- When am i going to start

- With which other people in my community can we do these things

- How do we go about doing these things to help the community.

These questions are usually answered at the last day of our training called the " Open Space" where everyone and the community will say what they will do for themselves, hinged on the practices of

Sanitation,

Heath Care

Nutrition

Education and

Economic Security.

The community, by the very reasons of what they have aggreed to do to help themselves, offer themselves some checks and we work with them often to ensure that we do not only provide for what we think they need, but are helping them to achieve what they say they will do and are ofcourse doing for their communty.

Now these becomes their own programs and not ours in such a way that whether we stay or leave the programs will endure. This is what we call transformational develoipment in which people identify needs themselves and work to solving them and we offer a back up in helping them realize their community goals.

On top of all these we help them to become economically secure so that they can take care of their own orphans and all children in the worst of crises.

I hope this suffices, if you need more information i am there for you.

Thanks,

Phillips