Nasarawa, development partners move to tackle Almajiri

TRACKING>>Nasarawa State government has expressed its readiness to partner development partners and corporate organisations to address the challenges of out-of-school children otherwise called Almajiri.

Senior Special Assistant/Focal Person, Human Capital Development to Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, Habiba Balarabe Suleiman, stated this at a meeting with Ambassador Mariam Sani Suleiman, founder of Mariam Foundation, yesterday in Lafia, the state capital.

She said state government was making effort to take out-of-school children off the streets and provide them access to education.

According to her, the increasing number of out-of-school children in the state and the manner in which they roamed the streets was alarming and pathetic. She called on development partners, philanthropists, corporate organisations and individuals to partner the state government to intervene.

The senior special assistant added that at the United Nations’ conference in October 2016, it was revealed that Nasarawa State ranked third highest in the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, saying that; “These out-of-school children are easy target for ritual killing and insurgency and giving the challenge of insurgency in the country, they can easily be assimilated.

Government alone can’t handle this burden; we need the support of development partners, philanthropists, corporate organisations and individuals to intervene.”

Founder, Mariam Foundation, Ambassador Mariam Sani Mutle, said she was in the state to partner with government to take such out-of-school children off the streets and provide them access to education to become responsible persons in the future.

She said her foundation, which focused on out-of-school children, found out that most of these out-of-school children were migrants, but really don’t like the situation they found themselves.

According to her, “We are looking at how we can partner the state government to take these out-of-school children off the streets so that they can access education.”