Kaduna-Based Inter-Faith Centre To Select Schools For 57 Rescued Chibok Girls
Kaduna-based Inter-Faith Mediation Centre has been given the task to select schools outside Borno State and offer counseling services for the 57 rescued Chibok schoolgirls.
The Centre is to be assisted by a local team comprising of the state commissioner of health, heads of state-own health institutions, experts from other federal institutions , among others. They are to give local support and data to the Mediation Centre in achieving the goals of government.
The Borno State governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, handed the Centre the task Wednesday when officials of the Centre visited the governor in Maiduguri, the state capital.
The governor instructed the Centre to search for good schools for the rescued girls in Abuja or other areas, saying his administration was ready to do everything within its power to give quality education to the traumatised girls.
According to Shettima , Borno State Government has earmarked N100 million for the education of the Chibok schoolgirls, saying he was optimistic that those still being held will be released soon.
'Our heart go to all the rescued girls and to those still in captive of the so- called Boko Haram. We are willing to do everything within our power to give them quality education, including those still in captivity. We are willing to rehabilitate all of them to bring them out of their trauma,' he said.
He noted that the decision to give the task to the Kaduna-based centre was based on the need to also offer counselling services to the girls, after which it would identify the capacities to make informed decision appropriately to the future of the girls.
Shettima expressed optimism that the girls would come out of their traumatic experience at the end of the exercise.
Leaders of the Inter-Faith Mediation Centre, Pastor James Wuye and Imam Mohammed Ashafa, disclosed that the centre was established as an aftermath of the sectarian crisis in Kaduna State some years back, disclosing that the centre is backed by the United States Agency for International Development. (USAID).
They commended the state government for constituting a counselling team made of medical experts and psychology for the schoolgirls even before the voluntary intervention of the mediation centre. 'We are here not to reinvent what has been done. We have been to other African nations like Chad, Central Africa Republic, Sudan among others but we have the urge to replicate same in our country.
'Ours is psycho- therapy approach, we are to generate data and then follow up the girls progress in their education. The medical personnel will also assist in some medical checks in collaboration with the local doctors. We are here to complement your efforts,' the officials of the Centre said.
Chief of Staff to the Governor, Alhaji Abu Kyari, disclosed that the Chibok girls have been divided into three categories namely the 57 escapees, 119 not abducted but ran away from the school when the abductors came and the 219 still being held by Boko Haram.