In December 2024, three separate stampedes occurred in the space of four days in Ibadan, Oyo State; Maitama, Abuja and Okija, Anambra, leaving behind the dead and broken bodies of innocent Nigerians especially children and women. These incidents spoilt the mood of the season with the people trading blames and condemning government.
The great loss was termed a result of the failure of organisers and the government to prevent the disasters. It also raised question on how such avoidable tragedies occurred. There was consensus that lack of proper planning and crowd control measures by both the organisers and the government is responsible.
And while people hold that such tragedies are not accidents, but a result of systemic failures and consequences of neglecting the most vulnerable members of society, there have been many efforts to forestall a future occurrence.
One of such is a webinar organized by a nongovernmental organization, Dorcasgrace Community Initiative at the weekend. The webinar themed ‘Bridges of support: Addressing contemporary challenges of humanitarian aid and child protection.
The webinar discussed issues of increasing poverty among women and children, steps in identifying what people really need, building support around the needy; challenges and prospects, handling logistics and security aspects of palliatives distribution and how to avoid disaster as well as roles of NGOs in cushioning the effects of poverty and hardship on poor women and children in the society.
Speakers held organisers of the food distribution events culpable for failing to anticipate the dangers of large crowds gathering in a single place without the necessary crowd control measures and ensuring that there was adequate space, security as well as a clear, orderly process for distributing food.
According to statistics, Nigeria’s poverty index rose from 40.1 percent in 2018 to 56 percent in 2024, trapping about 129 million Nigerians in poverty; a situation that philanthropic individuals, NGOs and religious bodies among others try to rectify by giving out to the less privileged. But the continuous lack of order at such events have given rise to major concerns and this is why Dorcasgrace Initiative organised the webinar to look at ways everyone can work together to tackle the identified challenges, assess the crippling effect of poverty and protect the vulnerable ones especially women and children in the course of rendering humanitarian aids in the society..
Speaking on the topic, ‘Addressing Increasing Poverty Among Women and Children, Mrs. IbukunOluwa Otesile, a cognitive behavioural therapist and Chief Executive Officer of Haven Counselling Clinic, spoke on the rising levels of poverty affecting women and children globally as well as key factors contributing to these challenges and how they impact humanitarian aid
She pointed out that when raising boys and girls, more attention is given to a particular gender and this leads to problems and wrong socialisation process, adding that adding that one of the key to ending poverty is financial literacy for women, which she said tops the list of requirements.
Speaking on steps to identify what people really need, exploring methods to assess real needs in communities and the importance of accurate data collection and community involvement, Obatunde Oladapo, the co-founder and Executive Director of PLAN Health Advocacy and Development Foundation (PLAN Foundation) highlighted steps in identifying what people need
, a Former Executive Secretary of the Oyo State Agency for the Control of AIDS (OYSACA), which is the multisectoral coordinating and regulatory Agency for the AIDS response in Oyo State between 2017 and 2019 and founding member and Executive Steering Committee (ESC) member of the African Community Advisory Board (AfroCAB) and has sat on the ITPC World Community Advisory Board (World CAB) since 2008, listed the steps to include the population or crowd, how to reach the audience, audience reach of media organisations, data from government agencies and finding a representative of population to find out what they really need.
He identified major issues in palliative distribution to include poor planning and inadequate crowd control, insisting that “we don’t have the statistics to plan in Nigeria.”
Speaking on ‘Building Support Around the Needy: Challenges and Prospects,’ Pastor Marcus Milliams, spoke on issues of creating of sustainable support systems for marginalised groups and overcoming challenges such as donor fatigue and societal barriers as well as the crucial role of NGOs in humanitarian aid
Pastor Marcus, the Country Lead & CEO of La Vie Mot Global Mission aka Living Word Mission, National Coordinator of AONN and member of the Core committee of the National Child Policy (NCP), added that it is important to note that victims or survivors are not machines and they help to know how it happened and when it happened.
He added that it is important to know that the victim’s idea of justice may differ and their interst should be considered, noting that it is important to help them get their lives back in order to pursue justice and not withdraw.
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