The Victims Support Fund (VSF) on Wednesday inagurated a N300-million community restoration programme at Nyakwala Community in Wukari local government area of Taraba to mitigate the effects of attack on the community by gunmen.
The Chairman of VSF, Theophilus Danjuma who laid the foundation for the reconstruction of some key infrastructure in the community, explained that the place was destroyed during an attack by gunmen in 2014.
He said that the intervention was a full package aimed at restoring the hope of residents of the community and enhancing their means of livelihood.
Danjuma who was represented by his Special Assistant on Operations and Programmes, Mrs Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, said that some of the key areas of intervention included the reconstruction of the community school, total restoration of the Nyakwala Dispensary with an incinerator, stable solar power and an ambulance with full medical supplies.
“Apart from the school and dispensary projects, we have already completed the construction of 4,000-litre solar powered borehole with more than 20 dispensing points and construction of an ultramodern rice mill.
“We are also setting up a maize and cassava mills as well as a mega fish pond that would house more than 20,000 fingerlings at takeoff.
“All of these will be managed by the VSF and the Nyakwala community to make sure that they are able to bring in even more development in the area and neighbouring communities.
“Since a lot of families have lost their men’s of livelihoods, including farmers and business owners, we have decided to provide farm inputs for various categories of farmers so that they can go back to their farms,” he said.
He said that VSF had also provided brand new sewing machines for other people to enable them kick-start their businesses.
According to the chairman, the effects of the “unfortunate attack” on this community are indeed grave.
“Most families no longer have what it takes to keep their children in schools; we have made provision for school bags, sandals, and writing materials for 700 profiled pupils.
“We have also selected 90 other people who will be given the cash sum of N150,000 each to enable them to start small businesses.
“We have also completed arrangement for some youth in the community to be sent to Kaduna for training on the maintenance of some of the heavy machines that will be installed at the various mills.
“The aim of these is to make sure that there is an all-round restoration of the normal way of life of the people that has been taken away from them.
“We hope that in the next three to six months, this community will witness tremendous transformation,” he said.
The village head of Nyakwala community, Chief Joshua Barau, who thanked the fund for coming to their aid, said that the community members would make the best of the intervention and would guard all the facilities well.
Mr Taninga Binga, the Commissioner of Humanitarian Service who was the Taraba government representative at the occasion, commended the fund and the team for choosing the community and the state for the intervention.
He said that the state government would provide the needed supervision without direct interference.
Some of the beneficiaries said that the intervention would change their lives and help them to start up again.
