Speeches Shim
Rebuilding The North-East: USAID To Spend $240M In Nigeria
00:02:34
Video Transcript
The insurgency in northeastern Nigeria has forced many out of their homes, and this has affected education in the areas.
School age children have been kept out of their classes. The humanitarian crisis has prompted the U.S. Agency for International Development to intensify its intervention programs in affected areas.
The director of USAID, Michael Harvey, explained that the agency's intervention targets internally discplaced persons in Borno, Adamawa, [unintelligible], and Hubei States. USAID believes the task is addressing the many issues.
Families in the displaced people's camps as well as the hills in hills community are dealing with it.
Michael Harvey: "It's a big program, but as you see around you, the population in need is huge. So it remains a very challenging problem. Working with a whole host of international NGOs, the International Rescue Committee, Action Against Hunger, and several other groups who are working directly in the camps to support what [unintelligible] and [unintelligible] are trying to do."
Victims of insurgency in [unintelligible] originally from [unintelligible] hold council in Borno are the first to host the team. They complain of poor living conditions and feeding, leading to malnutrition and other illnesses.
We need water and drugs and the weather is very harsh here because there are no trees the sun disturbs us a lot.
Part of the intervention plans of USAID is identify and empower displaced families, preparing them for their return home.
Michael Harvey: "We are providing electronic cash vouchers to IDP families so that they can buy food but also pay for other non-food expenses that they have like medicines or rent if they're renting a small house. So, what we and the other international partners in Nigeria have been trying to do is put in a basic platform, a minimum package of support to enable families to get by so that when there is peace they can go home."
USAID also encourages informal community schools and has given assurances to partner with relevant authorities to give as many kids as possible unlimited access to education.
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March 14, 2019
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