Posted on: 08:27 Thu, 16 Jul 2015



The Boko Haram insurgency has taken
a toll on the socio cultural and
religio-politico lives of almost all
Nigerians.

In the north east, nothing can ever be
the same again.

Families have been broken, bread
winners killed, entire communities
ransacked as the insurgents have
imposed their surrogates as satraps.
The aborigines of those communities
have fled for safety and now find
themselves in various refugee camps,
now called Internally displaced
persons camps all across the country.

At the end of the fist half of the year,
there are an estimated 2million
people living in internal displacement.
Refugees in an IDP Camp in Yola,
Adamawa State Most of these camps
are spread around Borno, Yobe,
Adamawa and other places in the
North east where living conditions are
horrendous.



There are also a few of these camps
located within the pristine federal
capital, and one- the Gwoza/Bama IDP
right in the heart of town, just a stone
throw from the Federal Secretariat in
Area 1.

ICA was in this camp to see things for
himself when Power Forward Africare
Project took students of 5 FCT
secondary schools there for
community work.

The Power Forward Africare project is
a collaboration between the National
Basketball Association (NBA), Africare
NGO – a youth empowerment
initiative that uses basketball to
develop health, leadership and life
skills among Nigerian youth.
Officials of Africare Officials of
Africare & Power Forward Africare &
the Students Secondary school
students in FCT The curriculum
incorporates leadership training and
health awareness through a
combination of classroom and athletic
activities, with student evaluations at
different stages of the initiative.



In addition, each school has a coach
assigned to oversee the curriculum,
guide students through lessons, and
monitor progress.

The Power Forward pilot program
was launched in 2013 in partnership
with the NBA, Africare, ExxonMobil
and local school and education
officials.

The second season of the Power
Forward pilot program include
basketball games, clinics, life skills
seminars and community work which
took students from Bicardo, Divine
Mercy and three Government
secondary schools in Wuse, Garki and
Karu to the IDP camp in Durumi.
The initiative provided food, toiletries,
mosquito nets to the inhabitants while
also engaging in sanitation to keep the
surroundings clean.

Several displaced persons who spoke
to ICA on their condition thanked
Africare & Exxon Mobil for coming to
their aid.

They also hoped civil society will
engage more with them and
government to bring more succor to
their camps, while also pushing
government for a quick resolution of
the insurgency problem so they can go
back to their ancestral homes.