Aisha Buhari rallies West African First Ladies for refugee women, children
“Key among the areas of interest is establishment of a coordinating mechanism in the region, distribution of relief materials, provision of psychosocial support to the victims and empowerment of women and girls. There is also the issue of advocacy to expose the full magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in the region.”
Wife of Nigeria’s President, Mrs Aisha Buhari is set to host in Abuja, a high–level meeting of First Ladies of West African states to adopt a strategy, which will allow them to provide adequate social and economic support to refugee women and children in the Lake Chad Basin.
This was made known at the technical session convened to marshal the strategy in Sokoto, on Monday, a statement by Director of Information, Office of the Wife of the President, Mr. Sulaiman Haruna, disclosed.
The statement said Mrs Buhari had initiated discussions on the issue with the First Lady of Niger Republic, Dr. Malika Issoufou Mahamadou, at the sidelines of the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly, last year.
Both wives of two neighbouring countries were concerned by the spate of fleeing populations and refugees moving within and across national borders in search of safety and settled life, especially in the Lake Chad Basin, which had been described as conflict-prone, with UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) reporting 3.8 million people facing severe food insecurity and going hungry, as at July 2016.
“Key among the areas of interest is establishment of a coordinating mechanism in the region, distribution of relief materials, provision of psychosocial support to the victims and empowerment of women and girls. There is also the issue of advocacy to expose the full magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in the region,” the statement said.
Senior Special Assistant to the President in the Office of the Wife of the President, Dr. Hajo Sani, who headed the Nigeria’s technical team at the Sokoto meeting, said the high-level meeting had been fixed for 28th February in Abuja and will attract the First Ladies of Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali.
The meeting, according Dr. Sani, is planned to be attended by Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Women Affairs, FCT as well as development, voluntary and civil society organisations.
On her part, the Head of the Nigerien delegation and Senior Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, Dr. Hadari Zeinabou, said the purpose of the meeting was to enable the First Ladies to complement the efforts of their spouses in the area of improving the health and well-being of the less privileged in the Lake Chad Basin region.
The Sokoto meeting will last till Tuesday.
