By Meletus EZE
The U.S. Mission has awarded $25,000 grants to support two local organisations to address important gaps in refugee protection and assistance in Nigeria.
The Deputy Chief of Mission, David Young, announced this at the presentation of the grants on Friday Abuja.
Young said the fund known as ‘Julia Taft Refugee Fund’ was aimed at addressing important gaps not addressed by larger multilateral refugee programmes.
The funds, according to him, are meant to support sustainable projects that assist refugees or refugee returnees beyond one year.
He listed the two organisations like the Centre for Caring Empowerment and Peace Initiative (CCEPI) and the Initiatives for the Empowerment of Vulnerable Persons in the Society.
According to him, the organisations received the funds in response to a call by the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration for programme recommendations for the 2018 Julia Taft Refugee Fund.
He said the two projects to be funded through this programme would work with some of the most vulnerable populations in Nigeria internally displaced persons and returnees.
These, he said, include orphans, young widows and indigent persons whose livelihood has been destroyed as a result of insecurity in Northeast Nigeria, helping them to become economically self-sufficient.
an official of CCEPI, one of the recipients, Mr Daniel Dibal, said the organisation had been taken care of widows and orphans in Borno.
He said the state had the highest number of widows, widowers and orphans.
“This grant would go a long way in addressing the challenge of the people.
“It will go a long way in initiating the programme to assist ravaging communities.
“For the fact that most NGOs avoid Borno, we decided to take the bull by the horn,’’ he said.
Dibal said the programme targets 25,000 families in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa with extension to Nasarawa state.
