JOS Stakeholders Centre for Peace (JSCP) has secured 136 slots of tuition fee scholarship from 12 schools within Naraguta “B” state ward in Jos North Local Government- Area (LGA) of Plateau State.
Chairman Psycho Social Support Working Group, Mr. Atsen Yakubu Arin stated this while taking the statistic of vulnerable children who indicated interest to enroll for scholarship into schools, held at Ruhaniya Baptist Church Godola in Jos North LGA, last Saturday.
Mr. Arin said that, JSCP which is a multi stakeholder’s network was established under one of the Search for Common Grounds (Search) known for collaborative violence prevention has been running since July 2017.
He disclosed that, the network has 4 working grounds leading community based initiative impacting on cultural violence and substance abuse prevention, psycho social support and community- security agency collaboration working in Jos North LGA.
Mr. Arin said that, the project was aimed at providing psycho social support to victims of violence and the most vulnerable youth in the society.
He noted that, the gesture is geared towards supporting the target beneficiaries who could not have access to education due to the loss of caregivers to community violence or incapacitation of guidance to send them to school thereby making them vulnerable.
In his remarks, JSCP consultant coordinator Mr. Pwakim Jacob said that, when the marketing for this model for violence prevention started in 2017, some of the target stakeholders felt it was not- possible, adding that, “today there is massive stories to tell about our effort in communities of Bala Kaze, Damisa, Ibrahim Katsina and now Naraguta “B”. We give God the glory that our collective impact work is paying after all”
Mr. Jacob maintained that, the key gain is that, Search for Common Ground created the atmosphere for people to see other ways of doing things that would support communities ravaged by violent conflicts through the efforts of those impacted by the legacies of violence and those in position to take action.
Also speaking, chairman JSCP, Mrs. Jenifer Yarima expressed optimism about the exercise and commended the leader and members of psycho social support working group for the good works that they are doing and urged them to sustain such tempo.
Mrs. Yarima explained that about 50 schools were contacted for the scholarship enrolment programme, but only 12 schools responded to the request made to them.
She said that, the scholarship programme would go a long in educating the vulnerable children in the society adding that, the proprietors of the 12 schools have assured them of their readiness to support the programme.
Mrs. Yarima also said that, she was impressed with the large turnout of the people during the exercise, and also called on other school proprietors who have not joined the scholarship programme to emulate those 12 schools that have already joined.
THE NIGERIAN STANDARD reports that, parents and community leaders who attended the exercise applauded the initiative and assured them of their support and cooperation at all times.
