NIGERIAN Church, Daystar Christian Centre on Tuesday donated a sum of N10 million to support people displaced by the insurgency in the country and other African nations.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Nigeria Country Office, acknowledged receipt of the donation, saying it would be used to assist those forced from their homes due to conflict and all forms of violence in the region.
“This donation will be used to provide life-saving emergency assistance to families forced to flee their homes and DaystarNG commitment to help uprooted families is appreciated,” says Antonio Canhandula, UNHCR Chief in Nigeria and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
“Africa has vast potential to finance the needs of its displaced persons through its rich spirit of giving and human solidarity.”
Today, we received a N10 million-naira donation from the Daystar Christian Centre, a benevolent faith organisation based in Nigeria. This donation will support people forced to flee their homes because of conflict, violence or persecution in Africa. #WithRefugees pic.twitter.com/nCic2LEgLn
— UNHCR Nigeria (@unhcrnigeria) April 2, 2019
Based on figures from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Swiss-based centre working in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council, over 1.7 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have been recorded in Nigeria as at 31st December 2017.
Relief web, one of the leading sources for timely humanitarian information on global crises, managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), shared almost the same figure.
It stated that the Displacement Tracking Matrix report released by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) affirmed 1.7 million people were displaced as at June 2017. Thus, identified need for human protection in the northeast region, for an estimated 6.7 million people just within Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States.
The UNHCR, however, noted that many displaced persons lack where to sleep, access to water and no access to primary health care services, adding that, “Nigeria is unfortunately affected by this phenomenon in the North-East and Middle belt”.
“When people flee their homes, their needs become critical, and their coping mechanisms compromised DaystarNG donation is a commitment towards restoring the resilience of families forced to flee across the continent,” says Sam Adeyemi, Senior Pastor at Daystar, in his opening speech.
Opening speech given by @sam_adeyemi. He appreciates the immense efforts of the UNHCR and highlights some of the contributions of Daystar to the society#DaystarNG #UNHCR pic.twitter.com/NZq1fD3UIO
— Daystar (@DaystarNG) April 2, 2019
The gesture has however attracted lots of commendations on the social media with people challenging other churches to do the same.
Adenekan Lanre @Larenzo121 stated that ‘more churches should do this. This is highly commendable.”
“God bless @DaystarNG and God bless our own pst @sam_adeyemi for this…..No one must go to bed hungry!!!,” Mr. Ogundele tweeted @doctorucom.
Olugbenga heads the Investigations Desk at The ICIR. Do you have a scoop? Shoot him an email at [email protected]. Twitter Handle: @OluAdanikin