A non-governmental organisation, Plan International Nigeria says it has distributed palliatives to residents of Borno State in a bid to cushion the effect of the lockdown occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic.
The organisation in a statement issued on Friday by its Communications Advisor, Mr. Yunus Abdulhamid, said Plan International Nigeria “has so far reached 28,724 individuals in Borno State with food items to cushion the effect of the lockdown measures. Support for the people has become important according to the Country Director of Plan International Nigeria, Dr. Hussaini Abdu, because “Borno State has been the epicentre of insurgency in Nigeria for the last 10 years. Coupled with the novel coronavirus pandemic, the conditions of children, girls and women have become grimmer”.
He said “our focus therefore has been on those people who were already in unstable situation and whose situation is now more perilous as the COVID-19 pandemic adds to their level of vulnerability,” adding that “we anticipate that in the face of the pandemic, the system already overwhelmed with responding to challenges of gender-based violence, malnutrition and poor livelihood amongst the internally displaced persons would come under more pressure. We therefore consider it appropriate to provide these citizens with food items, many of whom might not be reached by the government interventions.”
“Each beneficiary in the communities of intervention received 10.5kg of sorghum or millet, 3kg of beans, 1.5kg of cereal, 0.972kg fortified vegetable oil and 0.15kg of iodized salt. The target is to reach 56,738 beneficiaries monthly,” the statement revealed.
