Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Bright Vision Health Foundation (BVHF), in collaboration with the Latter Day Saints (LDS) Charities, a humanitarian arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently distributed relief materials worth millions of naira to internally-displaced persons (IDPs) at the Daudu Camp in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.
Representative of BVHF, Adaobi Dozie, said the gesture was borne out of the zeal to give emergency response to the humanitarian crisis in Benue occasioned by the Fulani incursions into the state since January this year.
She said the one-month programme, which is already in its third week, commenced with the identification of beneficiaries and the training of distribution officers and supervisors. This eventually culminated in the actual distribution of relief materials to the displaced persons.
Dozie said selection of beneficiaries with focus on pregnant women, breast-feeding mothers, children up to five years, the disabled, and the elderly that were 65 and above, have already been done, adding that each household that has these categories of beneficiaries has been selected.
Items distributed included foodstuff such as rice, beans, garri, noodles, as well as sanitary pads, tissue paper, detergent, bath soaps and bar soaps, among others.
Launching the distribution of the materials, executive secretary, Benue State Emergency Management Agency, Emmanuel Shior, thanked the group for the gesture. He urged other organisations and individuals to come to the aid of the state by providing relief materials to assuage the burden of catering for the over 170,000 displaced persons who have been placed in eight camps across the state.
Shior lamented that, till date, the killings and sacking of more villages by the invading Fulani herdsmen have continued unabated, thereby swelling the number of IDPs in the state.
He said, “Our people are being killed on a daily basis. The attacks are still on-going. Just yesterday, the Fulani men attacked Anyii and burnt several houses. The need to meet the needs of the people is on the increase. I, therefore, urge the international communities to come to the rescue of Benue people, while we also ask God to touch the hearts of the killers to have a rethink and stop the killings in the state.”
Some of the beneficiaries, including Mama Dooshima Agha, a 65-year-old mother of four, and Reverend Father Godwin Tyagher, parish priest from Umenger who is now in camp to celebrate mass with the displaced persons, thanked BVHN and LDS Charities for the gesture.