Benue ranks highest in orphan, vulnerable children

BENUE State is still ranked highest in the number of orphans and vulnerable Children (OVC) in the country with a statistics of 48.8 per cent.Mrs. Pricilla Atoza, focal officer for Education as a Vaccine for OVC (EVA), who dropped the hint at a workshop in Makurdi also said that not less than 464 vulnerable children have been given educational support by their organisation across the state.She pointed out that statistics has shown that one in every ten children ages zero to 17 years is an orphan while Nigeria counted for 17.5 million OVC with 7.3 million orphans with Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) .The state team leader of EVA, Mr. Godwin Agia, said the advocacy meeting was aim at ensuring that all vulnerable children have access to services that goes beyond the provision of school fees in their communities and called on the media to project its activities.He requested a waiver in all education user fees including Parent Teachers Association (PTA), arts and crafts, sports, maintenance fees and first aid levels for the orphans and vulnerable children who are in need of education in other not to become a menace to the society.Earlier, the project coordinator Miss. Dooshima Anata commended journalists for partnering with EVA to highlight its activities while the nIGERIAN union of Journalists (NUJ) caretaker chairman Mr. Teghtegh Dakor appealed to NGOs in the state to always involve members at a planning stage to project them better.
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