One World Initiative for Sustainable Development (OisD), an NGO on Tuesday, awarded scholarships to no fewer than 42 pupils in some communities in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) in the FCT.
Mr Timothy Achanya, the President of the NGO, presented the awards to the pupils at the inauguration of its “2022 Save Our Future Project”, in Abuja.
He said that the project, which is a special intervention in education, was designed to combat the incidence of out of school children in Nigeria.
According to him, a recent report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) revealed that Nigeria has 20 million Out-of-School children, placing the country at number 10 on the global scale.
He added that the project, which would begin with AMAC, would be organised in the remaining five area councils in the FCT.
“The Save our Future Now project is supposed to take care of all out of school or on the street children, to make sure we bring them back to school.
“We have put together three main strategies to enable us achieve this feat.
“The first is the direct scholarship to school drop-outs within the selected communities in the FCT, they include Jiwa community, Lugbe and Nyanya communities.
“The beneficiaries were selected randomly and in total, we have 42 pupils, spanning Primary two to Primary six,” he said.
Mr Tony Onoja, the Deputy Speaker, Legislative Arm, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) appreciated the NGO for coming up with the initiative, stressing that the area council would continue to collaborate with the organisation.
“We are going round to some embassies under our ward to assist with this issue of out-of-school children, as part of their corporate social responsibility.
“If these children are out of school, they are prone to crime and so many social vices.
“We also want to encourage the children to know that there is still hope for them at the end of the day,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Alhassan Sule, the Acting Executive Chairman, FCT Universal Basic Education Board (FCT UBEB) said that all children, irrespective of where they live or their circumstances, have the right to quality education.
Sule, who was represented by Mr Auta Emmanuel, Special Assistant, Technical to the Chairman, added that any attempt to neglect the education of children, would have great future implications in the society.
“The best way among others to address the issue of out-of-school children, is to catch them young through effective provision of Early Childhood Care Education.
“This is because various research outcomes have shown that early stimulation of children at the pre-primary school level of age zero to five, is very critical.
“This is because it serves as an important foundation for the overall future development of the child,” he said.
One of the recipients, Abubakar Dauda, appreciated the NGO for the scholarship.
“I want to thank them for the scholarship they gave us. I pray that God will bless them,” he said.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)