Succour came the way of many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), in Adamawa State as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has donated a $2m Multipurpose Community Hall in Yola to the Adamawa State Government.
The donation as facilitated by South Korea is a way of providing a community-based Mental health and Psychosocial Support MHPSS to victims of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence SGBV, insurgency and other Internally Displaced Persons IDPs.
The development came as the Adamawa state Government requested greater technological support from South Korea to help empower millions of unemployed youths and others whose livelihoods have been negatively impacted by the Boko Haram insurgency.
While commissioning the centre, the state Governor, Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri who was represented by his deputy, Chief Crowther Seth, commended the South Korean government, the World Food Programme WFP and the IOM for the gesture, and asked South Korea to consider indigenes of the state in its sponsored postgraduate programmes.
Promising to put the centre to good use, the governor urged the South Korean Government to expand such community interventions to ICT and other sectors of human endeavour to incorporate more people.
In his address, IOM Chief of Mission, Franz Celestin said the hall was built with the aim of providing a safe space for those who have been displaced and also for those in the community who need assistance.
“They are invited to come, not only for the day to just relax but to also learn a skill to move on with their lives.
This hall complements all of the activities that we have been doing to fully operationalize humanitarian development and businesses'”
Continuing, he said, “This gives space for women, especially those who have been victims of violence, to chart their own courses and put forward the steps in the right direction for a better life.
“It will empower women in the community to see a life beyond humanitarian aid. What we are doing here is giving them a hand up to allow them to step forward,” said Celestin.
The Chief of Mission said; “The scope is going to reach as many people as possible, we are just testing it to see how many people we can accommodate and we are going to cascade it to reach even more people.
“Now we have more than 100 sewing machines, there is a fish pond in there where they will learn horticulture and raising fish, which they can sell.” He added.
