Benue Killings: Rochas Foundation Awards 1,000 Scholarships to Displaced Children
The Rochas Foundation has awarded 1,000 scholarships to children in displaced camps in Benue State as a result of the recent clashes in the state.
The Director General of the foundation, Mrs. Uloma Rochas Nwosu announced this in an interview with journalists at the 20th anniversary celebration of the foundation at Heroes Square, Owerri, Imo State recently.
She said the scholarship was part of the agenda of the foundation which is to take off one million African children from the streets by 2030.
The Benue State government recently announced that over 10,000 children are unable to go to school as a result of killings and clashes between herdsmen and farmers forcing thousands to relocate to camps for displaced persons.
As a foundation, we shall be offering free and qualitative education to 1,000 children at the IDP Camp in Benue State. This may not be enough considering that over 10,000 children are estimated to be out of school as a result of the recent clashes in that state,” she said.
The President of the foundation and Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha called on well to do citizens in Africa to establish educational foundations that could help reduce illiteracy in the continent.
He said the call has become necessary in view of increasing illiteracy in Africa. “Those children that have poor background can become somebody if provided opportunity to attend schools.”
He therefore appealed to well to do Africans to join in the campaign to take one million children off the streets by 2030, adding that he is convinced that children of the continent if properly educated are the future of the world.
“As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Rochas Foundation, I am using the opportunity to launch ‘Vision 2030’ which is aimed at taking one million African children off the streets by that date. I urge everyone to volunteer. Help train a child in school because I am convinced that these children, if properly trained, are the future of the world.”
Okorocha pointed out that the foundation has come to stay in tackling the problem of the less privileged, not only in Nigeria but in other African countries.
He revealed that since inception of the Rochas Foundation College in Owerri in 2001, admission has increased to more than 16,000 students with more than 4,000 having graduated from the university.
Also speaking, the Director General of the foundation, Mrs. Nwosu said: “From the modest first Rochas Foundation College, Owerri in 2001 we have grown into 10 different colleges across the country, we also have the Rochas Foundation College of Africa with five children from 55 African countries.”
The wife of the governor and Vice-President of the foundation, Nneoma Nkechi Okorocha, expressed joy that what started in Jos, Plateau State as a modest contribution to help humanity has grown into a phenomenon.