By Danjuma Attah, Gombe
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has moved various emergency supports into the Internally Displaced Person’s (IDP) camp in Kashere town, Akko Local Government Area of Gombe State.
Over 7,000 IDP’s were reportedly forced out of their communities in Jigare, Mansur, Yolo and Gona in Alkaleri LGA of Bauchi State by heavily armed ravaging bandits.
They however found solace in neighbouring Kashere town where authorities of Akko LGA and the Gombe State Government camped them in Central Primary School Kashere for the past two weeks.
Considering the poor living condition of the IDP’s, UNICEF, in conjunction with the Gombe State Government on Friday afternoon moved into the camp with various forms of support to cushion their hardship and address the poor hygiene faced in the camp.
The Chief of Field Office, Bauchi Field office of UNICEF, Dr Nuhzat Rafique, after presenting the various support told Journalist that UNICEF brought in hygiene and dignity kits into the camp. “We have given almost 600 dignity and wash kits and 56 cholera kits at household level which can be used judiciously by the management team here at the camp”, she said.
This is apart from interventions UNICEF had been providing in the camp in terms of immunization and other health activities, Dr Rafique added saying, ”UNICEF is here especially to support in immunization, health activities for pregnant and lactating mothers, the deliveries.
“Luckily we have a very close-by facility where, all the services have been available thanks to the health department in Gombe. Also today, we have distributed the hygiene and dignity kits, because the situation of sanitation is very poor here, we need to improve to prevent any outbreaks of cholera and other diseases.
“There had been many zero-dose children who have never been vaccinated. So they are being covered. There are many children who have never been to school. So we are going to establish the safe learning space here so these children can start their learning process.
“We have given almost 600 dignity and wash kits and 56 cholera kits at household level which can be used judiciously by the management team here at the camp”, Dr Rafique explained further.
She commended the Bauchi and Gombe State Governments for all the efforts and supports rendered to maintain the camp as well as various visits made to the camp by the various Government officials.
Also in company of the UNICEF team was the Executive Secretary of the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Abdulrahman Shuaibu, who explained that the Gombe State Government had already set up an incident management system, a multi-sectoral committee that consists of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Water Resources, and other partners as well as the Ministry of Special Duties to manage and coordinate the activities of the camp.
He also told journalists that “Just across the road, we have a primary healthcare center, and the State Government has provided drugs to the IDPs in this camp to go and access freely.
“There are many children and we have started giving them routine immunization. We have our outreach teams from this healthcare facility that come here at least three times a week to vaccinate children. We also have surveillance officers among the IDPs that also refer clients or the IDPs to our healthcare facilities for treatment.
“As of yesterday, we have vaccinated about 300 children with routine immunizations. We have also vaccinated 33 children who are zero-dose, and two girls that are nine years old that received the human papillomavirus vaccine.
“We have some few cases of malnutrition and then we have sought for support from UNICEF. As you know, the state government recently paid a counterpart fund of 500 million naira to UNICEF for the procurement of ready-to-use therapeutic food.
“Those items, those commodities are not present in the state now, but we are expecting them any time soon, in the next one or two weeks. In the interim measure, we have sought for support from UNICEF to provide at least some cartons to cater for the needs of those children in the camp”, Dr Abdulrahman pointed out.
Earlier, Chairman of a committee formed in Kashere to take care of the Camp, Umar Badiko Kashere, explained how the Kashere community helped their guest with immediate interventions and how the security and other stakeholders have helped to manage the camp.
End.
