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Father of 14 calls for domestication of school feeding programme

Father of 14 calls for domestication of school feeding programme
By Peter Uwumarogie
Feeding
Dukku (Gombe State), Sept. 12, 2019 (NAN) Father of 14 children, Mr Musa Malala, has appealed to Gov. Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State to domesticate Federal Government’s school feeding programme to address the menace of out-of-school challenge in the state.
Making the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday at Malala, Dukku Local Government Area of Gombe State, he said that the policy would also boost school enrolment, if implemented.
According to him, since the programme was stopped, parents in the community found it difficult to convince their children to return to school, noting that the programme is a relief to both parents and children.
He said: “I am a father of 14 children with two wives, and it has not been easy for me to send my children to school but I must have to do it.
“Many children have stopped going to school because the school feeding programme stopped. All they keep saying is no food, no school.
“I am calling on our dear Gov. Inuwa Yahaya to pick up the programme to encourage all these kids who are out of school back to school. It will really help the school win back the pupils.”
Malala emphasised that “education gives value to people and I want my kids to be important tomorrow.
“I have eight of my kids in primary school and four in junior secondary while two are still breastfeeding. All of them must go to school as long as I am alive.
“I have seen how education has reformed the social and financial status of families that invested in it and I want my family to be used as an example in that light.
“I am also a primary school teacher, having acquired my National Certificate of Education. In my school, we use to have over 50 pupils per class but today we are struggling to have about 20 pupils.
“The remaining pupils are either at home or going to farm. It is difficult for parents to convince them to go back to school with the stoppage of the school feeding programme.”
While acknowledging that the programme was capital intensive, Malala advised the state government to consider different options including partnership to ensure that the programme was revived to encourage school enrolment.
The teacher also urged parents in the state not to hold back their children from school, adding that “education remains the only ladder to greatness that I know”. (NAN)
UP/KOO/MST
Edited by Kevin Okunzuwa/Muhammad Suleiman Tola

General news

NGO takes over 2 children allegedly assaulted by father

 

NAN-H-103

Children

By Martha Agas

Jos, Feb. 14, 2017 (NAN) The Christian Women for Excellence and Empowerment in Nigeria (CWEEN), an NGO, has given temporary shelter to two children said to be victims of persistent torture by their father, Christopher Sule.

Mrs. Comfort Zawaya, CWEEN Coordinator, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Jos on Tuesday that the children, aged eight and six years, had endured maltreatment by their 43-year-old father “for more than three years”.

“We have relocated the children from their Jos South residence to a more peaceful and friendly abode,” she said.

She said that the NGO was called in to give shelter to the children pending the outcome of police investigation into the matter.

“They (children) look very pathetic; they have scars on their faces, hands, legs and back.

Zawaya said that the father had owned up to the scars but claimed that he was training them to be well behaved.

She promised that the NGO would continue to counsel family members, especially victims of such traumatic experiences, and provide them with both psychological succour and social support.

According to her, Mrs. Rebecca Dakwo, the head teacher of Kingdom Academy, the children’s school, raised the alarm, when she observed the manner the children walked and related in school.

She quoted Dakwo as saying that the children moved like they had pampers on them, forcing her to call the attention of their mother, who is a teacher in the school.

“The head teacher threatened to take the children to a social welfare office, if the situation persisted.

“Last week, she saw new scars on their faces and quickly reported the case to the social welfare office in Jos South Local Government, who sought our intervention,” she said.

NAN reports that the father is being held at the Division B Police Station in Bukuru, Jos South, but has yet to be arraigned in court. (NAN)
MAA/HAS/ETS
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Edited By Hajia Sani and Ephraims Sheyin