No fewer than 200 marriages in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) which were on the edge of collapse were resolved and families re-united in 2016.
Mrs Ramatu Abdulrahman, the Head of Social Welfare in AMAC, disclosed this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
She said the reconciliation of the broken marriages was a great success on the part of AMAC because “when families are united, the nation is united”.
“We have reconciled over 200 people who are supposed to be separated by now; we are able to settle and unite them.
“For those who are pregnant out of wedlock, we were able to intervene and settle them even if they will not marry themselves; we ensured that the man brings some allowance to carter for the woman’s needs.
“Another area we recorded success was on the issue of abandoned children.
“When they bring those children to us, we take them to FDSC since we have not been authorised to keep them or adopt them, but we give them first hand care immediately they bring them,” she said.
Abdulrahman said they repatriated one child to Niger State and reunited her with her family.
On the vulnerable ones, she said they got support from Dangote Group of Companies and Smile Project, an NGO, while items they donated were distributed to the vulnerable ones and care givers.
Abdulrahman listed some of the challenges facing the welfare department to include lack of finance, lack of operational vehicles as well as lack of good environment to welcome clients and have proper discussions.
“We lack financial backing to help us operate well in AMAC; social welfare is supposed to have an operational vehicle so that whenever we are called, we can respond, but we don’t have all these.
“We also need a place we can do our work without distractions,” she said.