Minister Inaugurates 1000-Hostel Transit Camp

The Federal Capital Terri
tory (FCT), Minister of State, Ms Olajumoke Akinjide, in Abuja  last Thursday inaugurated a 1,000 hostel capacity transit camp for vulnerable children.
Akinjide said during the inauguration that the camp would serve as an educational and skill acquisition centre for the home-mates ,while benefitting the host community.
“The facility will cater for the welfare of the vulnerable segment of our population, mainly orphans, motherless and abandoned babies.
“It will serve as an educational as well as a skill acquisition centre for the home-mates while benefiting the host community in more ways than one,’’ she said.
Akinjide said the quality of care given to children, irrespective of the circumstance of  birth, to a large extent, determined the value of their adulthood and impact on the nation.
In her speech, Mrs Blessing Onuh, Secretary, Social Development Secretariat, said the objective was to transform the lives of youths and vulnerable children, who roamed the streets as destitute and beggars.
Onuh said the centre was meant to be a transit camp to cater for their immediate needs.
“The administration thought it wise to provide them with skills while they wait to be reunited with their families.
“We hope that through this centre, we will raise our future entrepreneurs as we have provided various training facilities to meet up with the growing demand of global trend,’’ she said.
Onuh said the camp contained six classrooms that could it, at least, 50 persons each, for theoretical learning and workshops in various skills, including fashion design and tailoring.
Others are shoe making and design, hair dressing and salon technique, welding and wrought iron design and catering and confectionaries.
She said the sustainability of the project would be through revenue generated within and called on interested individuals and organisations to partner with the secretariat.
Onuh appealed to FCT residents not to encourage begging by giving alms on the street.