Nasarawa to commence data collection on at-risk children programme

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3 years ago

Nasarawa State Government has pledged to commence the collection of the required data on At-Risk Children and young adults, that fall under the 19 categories of vulnerable children in the state.

The state deputy governor, Emmanuel Akabe, who disclosed this during the flag-off of the programme at the weekend in Lafia, said key government agencies have been mandated to kick-start the processes of data collection on the matter.

He said the state government had keyed into various initiatives of the FG aimed at ameliorating the hardship being faced by women and children across the state.

He noted that the state government under Engineer Abdullahi Sule’s administration had domesticated the ‘Child rights law’ to help toward the full cognitive and economic development of the vulnerable children in the state.

“Following the increasing violence and abuses against children and other vulnerable groups, the state in 2020 enacted Nasarawa State violence against person’s prohibition laws to safeguard and protect them. We are fully committed to protecting all vulnerable groups, especially children and we would support the FG to ensure the success of the At-Risk Children Programme,” he said.

Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Aisha Rufai-Ibrahim, said that At-Risk Children are those children who have high vulnerability and a tendency to shift into violence and those who are often from extremely poor backgrounds and are most likely to be abused.

According to her, they include orphans without family care, children of poor widows, children infected by HIV and children among others.

The Commissioner said that the government through the ministry had been doing a lot towards protecting children and others vulnerable and therefore, the At-Risk programme is to complement and re-enforce what they were already doing.

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