Project Info – OVC
Brief
Promoting the well being of Vulnerable Children and their families through improved systems and structures of State and Local governments, and civil society organizations in Damaturu and Gujba LGAs of Yobe State, Nigeria.
WOCHDI has been engaged in activities set out in the work plan in the two LGAs within 30 communities selected for implementation. In its implementation process constituted carers’ forum with membership drawn from key community members, ‘Almajiri’, teachers, ward heads etc. We also recruited and trained 40 community volunteers and engaged them in identification, pre-enrollment and assessment of identified children.
Various partnerships have been built with community stakeholders aimed at sustaining the project to permit greater impact in the various communities. Implementation was for over a year with active community involvement. During this period, there have been a number of activities like kids club,education support, establishment of early childhood centre, food support, health support, birth registration, renovation of water and sanitation facilities and so on that have impacted greatly on the lives of the targeted children and the host communities at large. A great level of community acceptance and cooperation has been recorded from both Damaturu and Gujba LGAs which is a good indication for community ownership of project.
WOCHDI organised series of training for care workers in Child care skills, psychosocial support for VC, and child protection. The goal of the various trainings is to help care workers understand the dynamics around working with VC. This training at the 30 selected communities included topics such on the roles and functions of PSS; building resilience; loss, grief, and mourning; stress and coping mechanisms; listening and talking to distressed children; and childhood development, how to apply for birth certificates for VC in collaboration from Nigerian Population Commission (NPC) will help care givers to provide more support for VC in applying for their identity documents, birth registration and provide spiritual and psychosocial support to VC. WOCHDI trained community volunteers provided monthly home visits to VC to offer counselling and encouragement.
Educational support:Even though many states in Nigeria claim that basic education is free, there are still several hidden cost like school uniform, books, paying for extra lessons and other levies like PTA fees; these cost keep many vulnerable children out of school in several communities in Damaturu and Gujba LGAs of Yobe state. WOCHDI worked on improving the quality of OVC education quality rather than solely focusing on quantity. This project provide school bags,and stationery to vulnerable children whose needs have been identified as needing these. Today 227 VC can attend school regularly due to the peace of mind they have with regards to payment of fees, and other needed materials.
Facilitator for Kids Club Training For Damaturu and Gujba Local Government Areas. The training was meant to open the facilitator’s eyes on the need and importance of kids clubs in their schools and communities, where the kids meet at least once a week in their schools. The training was a success having 10 participants from the two LGAs.
Child protection and legal support workshop WOCHDI organised a day workshop on Child protection and legal support for community volunteers in Damaturu and Gujba local government to build the skills on birth registration and protection issues. This will help the state in domesticating the child right act. This workshop brought a great change to the community volunteers and encourages them to carryout the birth-registration exercise as a referral with National Population Commission of the state.
Achievements so far
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