It is disheartening, seeing how parents, now left with the impossible choice of sending their children to school or keep them Safe at home, and even when they eventually allow them to go to school they are restless, filled with fear for their safe return home. Now, this is the situation of parents and children in Northern Nigeria.
At least 65 primary and secondary schools across northern Nigeria have been shut or rendered non-functional due to insecurity The closures span Sokoto, Benue, Plateau, Borno, Kaduna, Kebbi, Katsina and Adamawa, leaving thousands of children out of classrooms. The classrooms in dead silence, because the children are not going to school again, for the environment they once felt safe threatens their lives now.
For the last few years now, children in school have become targets for the bandits and gunnmen. They move in groups, abduct teachers and children in their classrooms, on the assembly grounds and even in their hostels, then demand for ransom, sadly, some of these teachers and children lose their lives in the process.
UNICEF and the state education board has estimated that million of children in Northern Nigeria are not in school due to insecurity. Everyday people live in fear, the rumors about attacks is enough to bring school attendance low.
When children miss school, the repercussions lasts longer. Some of them that dropped out are now on the farm, street trading, while the girls are married off at an early age as a way of protection. Education is a way to break the circle of poverty, without it the children in these communities are left subjected to hard labour, vulnerable to bad influence and habits just to survive. The high rate of security is not just keeping the children out of their classrooms, it’s reducing the chances to reading, writing, learning and growth.
Though the insecurity in Northern Nigeria is increasing day by day, I believe there is still hope because children still want to go to school and their parents want that as well. And that is why we exist, our goal is too see that every child in Northern Nigeria has access to free education, skills acquisition, personality development, trauma healing and spiritual growth. We believe every child deserves a chance at live and have the right to go to school, read, write, learn and grow.
With just a weekly donation of as low as 2$, sent here:
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 1016475161ACCOUNT NAME: Hasken Rayuwa Afrika Ministry (HUMANITARIAN ACCOUNT)
BANK NAME: Zenith Bank PLC
USD ACCOUNT NUMBER:5070985611
ACCOUNT NAME: Hasken Rayuwa Afrika Ministry
BANK NAME: Zenith Bank PLC
