In support of Nigeria’s counter insurgency efforts, the US deputy chief of mission, Maria Brewer, on Tuesday, announced the award of a grant worth $801,000 for the management of humanitarian challenges being faced by thousands of displaced populations in Yola and Jimeta, both in Adamawa State.
The grant is to serve as a critical pillar of support for activities of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, for the improvement of access to educational services for internally displaced populations (IDPs) in the region.
It is particularly intended to provide educational services for children and youth living in IDP camps and in the host communities.
The latest funding, offered by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), now places the total US humanitarian grant assistance to AUN at nearly $901,000 since the Boko Haram insurgency broke out in the region.
Boko Haram, meaning Western education is sin, is a controversial Nigerian militant Islamist group, seeking the imposition of Sharia law in the country’s Muslim dominated North through a campaign of massive violence, which has killed over 15,000 people since 2009.#
Speaking during the grant signing ceremony, Brewer said, “education positively affects people’s economic development and general health, while advancing civil rights.”
According to her, “where education is lacking, people are less likely to attain economic opportunity, which leads to greater poverty and, in too many places, opens the door to extremism and violence.”
Michael Harvey, USAID country director in Nigeria, signed the grant agreement with AUN in the presence of the deputy chief of mission and notable Nigerians from the nation’s academia.
In collaboration with the Nigerian government at the federal, state and local government levels, the US, through USAID, is also supporting humanitarian, transitional, and long-term development activities in north-eastern Nigeria, totalling $87.1 million.
Through its Student Empowerment through Language, Literacy, and Arithmetic (STELLAR) programme, AUN is expected to improve literacy and numeracy for 20,000 vulnerable, at-risk children, and for orphans of IDPs and host communities around Yola.
The STELLAR programme engages university students enrolled in service learning courses to write children’s books in English and local languages, and to tutor children in reading and mathematics after school.Un
der this USAID-funded grant, STELLAR will expand to include radio instruction, setting up of learning centres and classrooms, and the provision of IDP beneficiaries with remote instruction via radio.
