Flood: 1,800 IDPs given support in Kogi

Over 1,800 women from 300 women-led households in communities across four local government areas ravaged by the devastating 2018 flood in Kogi were give respite by ActionAid Nigeria on Monday.

The Non-Governmental Organisation partnership in collaboration with Participation Initiative for Behavioural Change in Development (PIBCID) intervened.

Mrs Gift Owonipa, Executive Director of PIBCID and ActionAid in Kogi, said 35 households were selected in Kogi LGA, 40 in Lokoja, 15 in Ajaokuta and 210 in Ibaji.

She said that the selection was based on a data of nine hard-to-reach communities with over 702 lactating mothers, 492 pregnant women, 30 PLWD and 15,439 children made available to it by the Ministry of Environment from an assessment it conducted.

According to her, the ActionAid team in the spirit of its principle of reaching out to the unreachable, informed the ministry of its intention to bring laughter to communities in Ibaji, Lokoja, Ajaokuta and the unreached communities of Kogi LGA.

Owonipa said that based on the budget available, the team decided to target 300 women-led households, family of six with priority for lactating mothers and pregnant women.

Documentation of the beneficiaries in various IDP Camps commenced on Thursday to Saturday and was followed by the distribution of relief materials.

The relief material distributed to each of the 300 women-led household includes; 10 kg of rice and gari, 3.5 kg of semolina, 1 roll of milk (6 sachets), 1 roll of tea (6 sachets) and one carton of indomie noodles.

Others include 1 packet of seasoning cubes, 1 liter of groundnut oil, tissue papers, sanitary pads, 1 roll of tomatoes paste (6 sachets), 5g of detergent, 2 tablets of bathing soap, 1 pack of salt, 1 mosquito net, for nursing mothers only.

Mrs Juliana Abuya, a widow with 14 children, was among over 1,260 women from 210 women-led households given succour by ActionAid in the selected four communities in Ibaji Local Government.

The 48-year-old widow told NAN that eight of the 14 children were her biological children, while the six others were children of her late sister.

Narrating her ordeal, the widow said for over five years since her husband’s demise, herself and the children had been living from hand-to-mouth with the little food from her farm, saying that their plight was further worsened by the flood.

Gloria Unubi, who gave birth at the IDP camp in Barrack-Onyedega, said she was rushed to a makeshift structure about 30 metres from the IDP camp to have her baby on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old mother of five said her family lost all of their crops to the flood, which submerged their farm.

She explained that, “Even our house was overrun by the flood and I had the pregnancy to content with.”

Onyedega, headquarters of Ibaji Local Government, the council secretariat, Divisional Police Headquarters, NSCDC office, primary and secondary schools, public and private premises were all sacked by the flood.