By Dorathy Aninge
The Benue Non-governmental Organisations (NGO) Network (BENGONET), on Wednesday, donated food items to 40 malnourished families at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Makurdi.
The Vice Chairman of BENGONET, Mr Daniel Seer, said that the gesture was to boost the nutritional needs of the displaced families.
Seer said that the network discovered that there were still some malnourished children at the camp, and hence the initiative.
The vice chairman said that the families were carefully selected with the help of camp officials to ascertain those that are actually malnourished so as to help them with their condition.
He listed the items donated to include eggs, rice, beans, palm oil and other condiments.
Dr James Iorpuu, Executive Secretary, Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), thanked BENGONET for coming to support the government in taking care of those at the IDP camp.
Iorpuu lauded the network for urging individuals and organisations to step forward and assist the government in mitigating the suffering of the vulnerable.
The SEMA boss appreciated the Ministry of Health for assisting those at the camp with health-related issues.
He stated that cases that were beyond the camp were being sent to Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) to be treated for free.
“We are happy that UNICEF is supporting us also in the issue of health care by providing drugs, as presently at Naka IDP camp, they have employed a medical doctor to treat patients at the camp.
“The government has fumigated the 17 IDP camps across the state to prevent any form of danger from reptiles, as there have been issues of snake bites across the state recently.
“We want to thank donor agencies and other individual groups that have taken out time to come and visit the camp with donations, and we will continue to count on them to support the IDPs,” he said. NAN
