Boko Haram: 800 affected children given psycho-socio therapy

Over 800 children affected by the Boko Haram insurgency went through psycho-socio therapy sponsored by the Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Board, the Executive Chairman of the Board, Bello Furo, has said.

The Boko Haram insurgency that has crippled activities in much of the North-East since 2009 has caused over 2,000 children to be out of school, hundreds of the school kids traumatised.

The Education Board boss, speaking in Yola, the Adamawa State capital on Wednesday explained that to rehabilitate the traumatized kids, the agency engaged the service of psycho-socio consultants. He said the process “has started yielding positive result, though it will take time to get fully rehabilitated.

“Unfortunately, most of these children you meet today some of their parents were slaughtered before their very eyes,” he said. “They do not have anybody to cater for them, they have lost their parents as a result of the insurgency.”

“There are young children who have been forced to flee their homes and turned as IDP’s,” he said.

Mr. Furo said that after rehabilitation the children are enrolled in schools within and outside the state.

“I must say that the exercise was worthwhile, truly most of the children have come back to stability.”

The agency boss said it secured 800 school admission offers to the affected children, following Federal government’s assistance through the Save Schools Initiative. The project granted the kids N15 million for transportation to various schools.

“Each child was given N10, 000, so also the person that accompanied the child to school,” he disclosed.