More than 500 children orphaned by Boko Haram insurgency in Borno have benefitted from medical examination and screening exercise initiated by an NGO, Smile Mission Healthcare.
Ms Kaltume Jidda, the Head of Clinical Services of the organization, made the disclosure while inspecting the exercise at the Orphans Integrated Learning Centre, on Saturday in Maiduguri.
Jidda said the exercise was designed to screen, ensure health and physical fitness of the children before they were enrol in schools.
She explained that the children were screened against malaria, pneumonia, common colds and other diseases.
Jidda added that the exercise also focused at providing psycho- social support to the children, to mitigate effects of trauma occasioned by their ugly experience of the insurgency.
“We targeted 500 children orphaned by the insurgency to improve their health status before enrolment into school.
“Care givers are also screened to ensure that they are healthy and fit to take care of the children,” she said.
Also, the Project Coordinator, Dr Abba Sale, disclosed that the organization had also provided drugs and other consumables to the school’s clinic to fast track first aid services.
Abba said that the exercise was conducted in collaboration with the Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiative (PCNI).
He advocated for practical measures to enhance education, care and support services to the orphans.
According to him, the organization has earlier conducted sensitization activities to about 10, 000 displaced persons at Muna Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp, to enhance sanitation and personal hygiene as well as improvement of nutrition to children.
The coordinator added that the organization also distributed blankets, sets of dress, sanitizers, antiseptics and soaps to displaced persons in the state.
Statistics from the state government showed that over 53, 000 children were orphaned and 50, 000 women widowed by the insurgency following the activities of Boko Haram insurgents.
The state government also embarked on construction of 22 mega school projects to accommodate the growing number of orphans in Maiduguri metropolis.
Equally, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) revealed that 2.9 million children are in need of education intervention due to humanitarian crisis caused by the insurgency in the northeast.