Anambra Government Meets with At Risk Children Programme as thousands of Anambra

 Anambra Government Meets with At Risk Children Programme

as thousands of Anambra children set to be empowered

By Adaobi Nsofor

Anambra State Governor,Prof. Chukwuma Soludo has reiterated its commitment towards ensuring that youths and children in the state are safeguarded against anything that will mar their future.

 Governor Soludo stated this during an inaugural meeting of At Risk Children Program (ARC-P) Team from the Office of the Vice President, State House,Abuja.

  Governor Soludo who was represented at the event by the Deputy Governor, Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim noted that the Government has the interest of the youths and children at heart and he's working tirelessly to ensure that they are well protected. He emphasized with dismay on how the environmental hazards and insecurity situations in the state is putting the children more at risk and vow that it would soon be a thing of the past.

  " The Government is doing well in all sectors of the state,health wise,agric wise, industrial wise, so it's a passionate call and it can be realistic", he said.

  Speaking during the event, the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment, Mrs Maryam Uwais stated that the At Risk Children Program(ARC-P) is conceived because of too many children who are out there on the street or dropped out from school. She noted according to UNESCO that about 20million Nigerian children are out of school and living below poverty lines and it's a thing of concern to the federal government on how to tackle the challenges.

  Mrs Maryam said that the interest shown by the state Government is applaudable, noting that the problem have to be addressed from the community level. She outlined that expertises needs to be gathered around the federal government, development partners and the private sector to see how the vulnerable groups can be worked upon.

  "The state need to set up a project team that comprises persons from the ministries and MDAs, the state will give them a project lead that's very enthusiastic and passionate about youth and children"

  "The state will give us data of all the vulnerable groups that they feel should be impacted on, they should also provide data of about 30-50 young people in every local government that will be trained to become mentors and monitors, to coach and mentor  those vulnerable groups that you have defined", she stated.

  Mrs Maryam added that they will be trained on the rights of children and youth, security awareness, safeguard issues, mental health etc.

  Also speaking, the Commissioner of youth and sports development, Mr Patrick Aghamba said that there's high level of unemployment among the youth, and 130 thousand jobs according to State Governor, must be created to ensure that the youths are meaningfully engaged.

  So also, the Commissioner of Agriculture, Dr Foster Ihejiofor noted that as health begins with the food that one eats, the use of agro chemicals should be banned because it's the children who are more at risk of developing cancer and other metabolic diseases overtime.

Speaking further, the health commissioner,Dr Obidike stated that more than 3.9million children in Nigeria still have difficulties in accessing health which calls for urgent action while the Commissioner of Commerce and Industry,Dr Obinna Ngonadi emphasized that alot of programs are being lined up in the industry which includes MSMe which is to create employment and make the youths active, as through industrialization, wealth can be created.

(Ministry of Information)