The Borno State Government has said it will build a comprehensive orphanage for at least 8,000 children that have been separated from their parents by the Boko Haram insurgency.
The stateโs Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hajiya Fanta Baba-Shehu, disclosed this in New York on Thursday.
Baba-Shehu said the state government would deploy social workers both within and outside the country to cater for the abandoned children.
โWe have about 7,000 to 8,000 unaccompanied children and Borno State Government is trying to build an orphanage home โ a big one, a huge one โ in Borno State,โ the commissioner said.
โThe Ministry of Women Affairs will coordinate the affairs of the home.
โAll our social workers, within and outside the country will help.
โWithin the provision of the 2017 budget, by Godโs grace, the structure will be completed and all the special needs of the unaccompanied children and girls will be taken into consideration.
โWe have to get a dormitory for them, we have to get social workers, which we have in the ministry โ specialized people โ who can help them.
โThose that trauma has affected are going to be taken care of.
โI addressed the donor agencies, especially the United Nations Women, the UNFPA, the Global Compact โ this is a new agency for us โ they are going to support us.โ
Baba-Shehu said she participated at the recently-concluded UN Commission on Status of Women, where she met with donor agencies and partners working to promote humanitarian aid and respond to the huge humanitarian crisis in the state.
โWe have more than 160,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno that are in the camps.
โThose in the host community are more than the ones in the camps; they are more than two million,โ she added.
