Fred Itua, Abuja

The Rochas Foundation has revealed that it has earmarked about N1 billion to return out of school children to the classrooms, in a partnership with the Federal Ministry of Education.

The Foundation says that since its establishment in 1998, it has aided in the education of over 20,000 orphans and other underprivileged Nigerians.

Director-General Ucy Okorocha told reporters in Abuja that over 5,737 students are in various schools across the country run by the Foundation.

Okorocha said the Foundation has also established a college where African children from less privileged backgrounds can enjoy free and qualitative education at no cost to their countries.

Speaking on plans to partner with the Federal Ministry of Education to get children of school age off the streets, Okorocha said:

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“The Foundation during the 2020 – 2021 time frame will partner with the Ministry of Education in this regard. It is for this reason that we shall launch a programme which encourages volunteerism and to pick these children out of the streets, providing them with education wherever they may be found in Nigeria.

“Rochas Foundation is budgeting the sum of N1 billion for this programme. This fund will be disbursed through NGOs who are found to be credible to help pursue this cause in their various localities where they exist.”

Speaking on the number of children trained so far, she said:

“As part of our efforts to extend the horizon of the free education outreach with the successes achieved, the Foundation established the first ever Rochas Foundation College For Africa where African children from less privilege background enjoy free and qualitative education at no cost to their country.

“The vision to give scholarships to at least five indigent kids from each of the fifty five African countries is daily yielding fruitful results as students are arriving daily to benefit from the laudable initiative. At the last count, we have 148 kids from 19 different countries across the continent.”