UKAid disbursed £1.4m to Kaduna, Benue, Borno in five months
The Legal Awareness for Nigerian Women (LANW) and Christian Aid Nigeria, with support from the people of the United Kingdom under UKAid, have expended about £1.4 million to cushion the effects of COVID-19 on poor and vulnerable households in Kaduna, Benue and Borno states between May and September, this year.
The partnering organisations had in May commenced a project tagged: “Nigeria-Afghanistan Localised Preparedness Emergency Response (C19 NALPER), designed to address primary and secondary impacts of COVID-19 on IDPs, returnees and vulnerable populations in hard-to-reach areas in the two countries.
Intimating reporters on how the funds were expended during a media roundtable in Kaduna, Project Manager, Christian Aid Nigeria, Mr. Fagbite Bamidele, said over £1.4 million was expended across the 54 locations of the project in three states in Nigeria.
According to him, the intervention was a rapid response project cutting across recovery and livelihoods, water sanitation and hygiene, provisions of non-food items, drilling of boreholes, repairs of water points and capacity-building for the benefitting communities.
Other areas of interest include training, information dissemination, and communication to communities on understanding the protocols of COVID-19 and cash distributions to beneficiaries across the targeted 54 locations.
Speaking on the expenditure and impacts of the project in Kaura, Kachia, Kajuru and Makarfi Local Government Areas of Kaduna State, Bamidele said over 540 people benefitted from cash distributions and 1,000 people benefitted from the non-food items.
Giving an overview of the progress of C19 NALPER in the three states, its Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Manager, Ms Talatu Aliyu, said cash distributions were given to 2,415 beneficiaries across 54 communities in Benue, Borno and Kaduna states.
According to her, 87 water points renovation has been completed in three states and 10 new ones drilled while some are to be completed in the coming week in Benue and Borno.
Ms Aliyu added that 720 community influencers across Benue, Kaduna and Borno were trained on COVID-19 WASH, and water points’ repairs and maintenance for increased hygiene practices and environmental sanitation.
On her own part, Executive Director of Legal Awareness for Nigerian Women (LANW), Ms Rebecca Sako, explained that 48 Community Protection and Health Committees (CPHC) received refresher training on GBV with three reported cases and referrals to state GBV centres were recorded during the training.
