The Victims Support Fund (VSF) has announced flag off of the construction of shelter for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at Ortese camp in Guma Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State.
Our correspondent reports that the Ortese camp houses at least 10,000 IDPs people in ram shackled tents.
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VSF, which is believed to have conceived the idea of an IDP Mega City along Makurdi-Lafia highway, will be constructing mass housing for the IDPs on the land earlier earmarked for the Makurdi Cargo Airport.
The Chairperson of VSF, Barr Toyosi Ogunsinji Akerele, made the announcement while distributing food items to IDPs in Kwande LGA.
Barr Akerele, who intimated that VSF would flag off its waterworks in Naka, headquarters of Gwer West LGA, by next month, disclosed that the construction of shelter at the Ortese IDP camp would begin in a couple of days.
She further said an economic empowerment programme would be launched soon to take care of LGAs which were not currently receiving food items, and that the beneficiaries would be completely new and different from those who had been benefiting from the food items.
She added that, “VSF will be hosting a training workshop on ‘Dispute and Conflict Sensitivity’, and it’s important because there is no community that can be prosperous without peace.”
Akerele noted that while VSF provided all the food items and medical equipment to support the IDPs in Benue, the state government’s contribution was to provide partnership in terms of framework for effective implementation of the programme.
She called on the media to bring the attention of other organisations to the humanitarian work that VSF was doing so that many more organisations would come in and support the citizens of Benue State.
Some beneficiaries: Mrs Mbateren Aluga, a mother of 10, and Alfred Terseer, who spoke with Daily Trust, narrated their experiences of hardship and thanked VSF for the intervention.
