By Mohammed Suleiman, Dutse
A Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Kano Field Office, Mrs. Fatima Adamu has said the organisation in Collaboration with Jigawa State government is working towards providing a platform that will bridge the gap between Almajiris, and out of school children, back to Schools.
“We’re working with Jigawa State to look at children at Tsangaya to look at safe guiding them, providing them with the services that they require, such as psycho social support, livelihood skills, school enrollment for those that want to and not only Almajiri children but also all adolescent out of school girls, She said.
Delivering a keynote address at a three-day train the trainees of 100 case Workers held at Theatre Hall, Jigawa state Polytechnic Dutse, Mrs Adamu stated that the Almajiri and out of school enrolment programmings in Jigawa was targeted at children that are already being documented and validated by the state government through partnership with SUBEB, the Tsangaya unit and the Ministry of Women Affairs in collaboration with CSOs.
Mrs. Adamu disclosed that for this year, UNICEF in Jigawa targeted to enroll between 8 to 10 thousands out of school children and that the Organization wants an environment where children would have the opportunity to grow with all the potentials required within their community.
Also speaking, the Director, Child Development, who doubled as a Focal Person of the Ministry/UNICEF program,
Mrs. Indo Garba stated that to pilot the program, all steps have been taken to take back the set of already documented out of school children to formal school.
The training, she emphasized, was part of the processes towards ensuring proper monitoring and the success of the program.
On the number of beneficiaries, Mrs. Indo Garba revealed that, they have registered 2000 children from each of the 4 local government Areas to begin the program.
“Among the benefitting children were those at the age of 10 to 14 to be enrolled back to school, while those from 14 to 19 will at the same time, be attached to learn some skills to help them become
self-reliance,”
“We are now holding a 3-Day training on case management, harmonized tool and Child Protections Information Management System to equip selected workers with the needed know-how on the use of Child Protections Information Management system, build and strengthening their capacity on case management.
On the number of out of school children, the Director disclosed that, for this program, the ministry will use an already documented and revalidated data saying, “In September last year to be precise, we revalidated our data of out of school children across the state and stood at 123,996. “Out of the data, the program will be piloted with 8000 children who will be enrolled into school.
“At a piloting stage, the ministry selected 4 Civil Society Organisations to begin implementation of the program in the state.
“A first batch of 50 case workers drawn from Dutse and Birnin Kudu CBOs are undergoing training, while the second batch of those from Kafin Hausa and Yan’kwashi would subsequently follow.”
According to her, “Every one among 4 of the selected CSOs was assigned with a particular local government for them to go and fish out the reliable Community Based Organizations, and that at the moment, the 25 CBOs selected from each of the 4 piloting local government Areas were assessed and ascertained by the Ministry in respect of their capacity of reporting and referring case of any of the out of school children in their community.
