Boko Haram victims in Borno to get skills acquisition training

The institute’s programme coordinator, Dr. Godwin Okoko, who briefed journalists in Jos, said the initiative would help to heal the victims’ trauma and properly rehabilitate them.IDPs. PHOTO: GETTYOMAGES

Worried by the plight of victims of insurgents in the Northeast, the Augustinian Vocational and Technical Institute, has set up a vocational training centre in Maduguri, Borno State to rehabilitate no fewer than 600 Boko Haram victims with requisite skills acquisition.

The institute’s programme coordinator, Dr. Godwin Okoko, who briefed journalists in Jos, said the initiative would help to heal the victims’ trauma and properly rehabilitate them.

Okoko stated that beneficiaries of the programme being anchored by the missionary vocational training centre, were chosen without discrimination.He said the beneficiaries would also be trained in financial literacy to enable them manage their businesses effectively after graduation from the vocational centre.

Okoko disclosed that he has concluded plans to establish similar vocational centres in other states like Kaduna, Benue and Osun to mitigate the negative effect of crisis on the citizens.

Commissioning the centre in Maiduguri, the clergy in charge of the centre, Reverend Father John Abubakar, said the institute was established to train victims of insurgents to be self-reliant.

Abubakar also stressed that beneficiaries of the institute would be assisted with funds to start-up their own businesses on completion of the training.“They will be trained in metal fabrication, aluminum works, hair dressing, knitting, shoe making and leather works, catering and decoration, among others,” he said.

Already, 250 of the beneficiaries who were selected from various internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in Maiduguri, were enrolled into the programme during the commissioning.

Representatives of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Jamaatu Nasir Islam (JNI), civil societies and the Vicar General of the Maiduguri Catholic Diocese witnessed the commissioning.