Saratu lives in the Internally Displaced Persons Camp located in Jikwoyi with her three children. Like many other who escaped Boko Haram insurgents’ attacks on their villages, she is one of the few who were brought to the camp by the Federal Government.
The sad angle to the story is that she is a widow and saddled with the responsibility of catering for her three young children alone. To survive, Saratu and others like her on the IDP camp engage in menial jobs while also relying on hand-outs from the government which unfortunately is not regular.
This was their plight until some Non-Governmental Organizations came to their rescue to offer them help.
One of such NGOs that have been at the forefront of giving succour to the women at the IDP camps is Women Solidarity Initiatives for Development, WOSID. They see WOSID as God-sent.
The NGO has been working with some of the women to give their lives a new meaning and sustaining them, through their own handiwork.
WOSID founder, Madam Marian Nishile does not see them as scum or useless to the society.
She sees them as hardworking female farmers who need just a little encouragement. According to her, though the NGO has been helping the women with foo, clothes and other household needs from time to time, they deserve more.
This, according to her is because they became displaced through no fault of theirs.
She therefore advocates better living conditions for them, where they can have access to potable water and other necessities of life.
Decrying the crowded environment in which they live, Madam Marian Nishile called on the government to ensure that social distancing which is being preached in the country as a result of Coronavirus should be extended to the cramped IDP camps. She also demanded that they should not exempted from Coronavirus palliatives.
To her, the IDPs are confined, if anyone really needs palliatives, it is the IDPs who have no one to help them and are now having to live with a lockdown.
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