There was palpable joy on Friday at Uhoguah in Ovia North-East Local Government Area of Edo State as 18 inmates of the Home of the Needy Foundation, which houses those displaced by the Book Haram insurgency in some states in the northern part of Nigeria, celebrated their graduation from various universities.
The elated Coordinator of the facility, Pastor Solomon Folorunsho, who briefed the press at the IDP centre, announced that the 18 graduates were part of the over 300 inmates in different universities in and outside Edo State.
Among the eighteen fresh graduates was Amos Ishaku, who braved all the odds to bag a First Class in Chemical Engineering from the Edo State University, Uzairue. Amos was the best graduating student in his faculty with a Cumulative Grade Point average (GPA) of 4.80.
Basking in the euphoria of the moment, Pastor Folorunsho said that he felt fulfilled seeing the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), whom nobody had given any chance in life, succeed, adding that the Home for the Needy Foundation started in 1992 as a non-governmental, non-profit-making organisation engaged in providing shelter, education, health services, and other welfare services to IDPs across Nigeria.
According to him, “We want the world to know that something good is coming from the Home for the Needy Foundation.
It has been in existence since 1992. It is a place where homeless and vulnerable children come. Women that are oppressed and women that are abused
“In 2012, we started working with Internally Displaced People (IDP) from the north. People who never went to school, people who were lightly educated Today, we have good results coming out of here. Here we have a young man who just graduated. He has bagged a first class; others have a second class upper. We want to draw the attention of the government of Nigeria to what we are doing here.
“We are contributing to government efforts. We are doing things to make sure that those who have no opportunity are given the opportunity in this country”, Folorunsho enthused.
Continuing, Folorunsho said, that the aims and objectives of the Foundation “are to help the needy, such as orphans, street children, children from broken homes, and those from poor families, among others.
“Our aims and objectives are to help the needy in society, such as orphans, street children, children from broken homes, and those from poor families. also out-of-school children, widows, internally displaced persons, and refugees, among others.
“It is also to provide accommodation, food, clothing, and primary health care and quality education (from nursery level to tertiary level) to the needy.
To provide skill acquisition and sporting facilities to the over 3,000 inmates living in the camp and depending on the Foundation for their day-to-day upkeep, including feeding, education, medical care, and clothing.”
While speaking, the First Class graduate, Amos Ishaku, who hails from Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State, said he joined the IDP camp in 2014 after dropping out of school in 2012 due to the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State.
“I was in SS11 when I dropped out of school. That was the first time I experienced a Boko Haram attack. Since then, our school has been closed indefinitely, and that is how I never went back to school until 2014 when I heard about the Home for the Needy.
I heard about it through my headmaster. Who knew me in primary school? We were displaced from one place to another.
My parents went their way, and the last time I heard about them, I was told that my mother was in Cameroon. When I came, I was not expecting anything, but at least to have a place to sleep and maybe food to eat.
“When I came, all I was hearing was gunshots and death all over the place as a result of my experience in Borno State. I started in SS2. I wrote WAEC in 2016, and all my results were F9. I almost gave up, but my dad never gave up.
He always encouraged us to continue, believing that we could make it and that society needed us despite what we may have experienced.
“In 2017, I wrote WAEC, NECO, and NABTEB and did not make But in 2019, I repeated it and made NECO. That was the result I used to gain admission into Edo State University Uzairue,” Isaku narrated.
The eighteen graduates are among the over three hundred undergraduates scattered across various universities in Nigeria, studying various courses such as Law, Medicine and Surgery, and nursing.
& Midwifery, Engineering, Accounting, and Microbiology, among others.
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