ActionAid Nigeria on Monday said it has spent over N180 million promoting rights of children to education as well as promoting women economic empowerment and social inclusion in 14 communities in Kogi.
Ms Funmilayo Oyefusi, Interim Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, who disclosed this at the 2018 Kogi Education Summit in Lokoja, said education was the right of every child.
Oyelusi said that ActionAid had been in Kogi for 11 years as Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) and had intervened in construction of blocks of classrooms in eight communities and construction of four Primary Health Centres.
Other areas, she said, the organisation had intervened include establishment of five Gari processing factories for women economic empowerment as well as Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects in four communities.
“We are also deploying peer education for women under Women Literacy for Life Projects aimed at empowering women towards social inclusion and to fight against harmful traditional practices”, she said.
She said that of the global 58 million people without access to education, Nigeria accounted for over 10.5 million out of school children with Kogi accounting for about 24 per cent of the 10.5 million.
She described education as one of the basic Fundamental Human Rights, “a right that is central to achieving all other rights.
She said that it was against this backdrop that the states were committed to ensuring that all children irrespective of age, race and disability had access to quality basic and inclusive education.
The ActionAid Country Director said the NGO launched the Inclusive Forum for Accountable Initiative in the state in 2015, adding that the summit was one of the products of the forum.
She said the organisation would provide technical support in the implementation of the outcome of the summit in the areas of access to inclusive basic education for all children, especially in poor rural communities.
Other areas, according to her, include gender responsive public services and bridging inequalities in education and synergy amongst stakeholders.
(NAN)
