Foundation donates school bags, stationeries, others to displaced children

A non-governmental organisation, Refuge Foundation, has donated school bags, notebooks, socks and stationeries to over 100 children at Eleko Beach IDP Centre, Lagos, to aid learning in the new academic year.

The foundation is an initiative that caters for internally displaced people in Nigeria, such as refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons.

Speaking at the event, the founder, Ogonna Kanu, said she was motivated to start an organisation that focuses on this segment of the society, because she was always intrigued by armed conflicts and its effects on victims and the larger society.

Kanu noted that most people often equate vulnerable persons or undeserved communities with orphanages or out-of-schools children.

She lamented that displaced people are usually grouped under vulnerable people’s tag and oftentimes not considered for humanitarian assistance.

“We have them in Lagos too. Displacement got bigger in Nigeria because of the conflicts in the Northeast. But it is more than that now.”

The activist noted that aside conflicts, people could be displaced by factors such as adverse effect of climate, flood or when development phases out slums or poor areas.

She said the foundation reached out to people who donated towards getting resources for children in this category to attend schools.

“Every little thing counts. Anybody could be displaced. It can happen to anyone,” she said.