The Government of the United States of America distributed N56.3 million grant ($352,696) to 46 non-governmental organisations in Nigeria to undertake various types of community-based projects on Monday.
The Ambassador’s Small Grants Programme was presented to recipients from different geopolitical zones in the country by the US Charge D’Affairs, Marie Brewer in Abuja.
The small grants programme receives support from the special self-help programmes through the Department of the State and US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
According to Brewer, several of the self-help projects will assist Nigerian children to access educational facilities and acquire new skills.
“These community-driven grants seek to encourage communities to undertake similar activities on their own in the future,” she said.
Brewer said the grants would benefit more than 160,000 men, women and children in Nigeria.
She expressed delight that the projects were geared towards improving the health and living conditions of host communities and assisting orphan and vulnerable children.
The US official also noted that some of the projects on agriculture were tailored to help generate income and stimulate economic growth in local communities.
Chiadikobi Umeh’s Imo State-based NGO, the Civil Society Development Watch Initiative, received N1.4 million to provide one borehole and two toilets in Emekuku High school in Imo State.
Umeh said the project would promote good hygiene and sanitation in the community, which was less than 10km from Owerri, the state capital.
He said: “I’m a young man and I will love young people in my community to live healthy.
“I observed that many young people don’t use toilet facilities in my community because they say it is very dirty and they prefer open defecation.
“This open defecation has its own adverse effects and it breeds diseases.”
Umeh said although two toilets and a borehole were not enough to meet the community’s “defecation needs”, it was a good start to promote sanitation in the area.
Also, Bolori Mohammed of Borno State, the Coordinator of an NGO, Future Prowess Islamic Foundation School, said the low pupil enrolment in the state inspired him to seek the grant to provide free education to school-age children.
Mohammed said his NGO received N1.6 million ($9,816) to provide school desks and chairs for orphan and vulnerable children.
He said: “Many people cannot send their children to school in Borno and it is worse for orphans and the insurgency in the area has not helped the already low education enrolment.
“The Boko Haram crisis has forced more children out of school and this has motivated us to do more to provide free and quality education for our children.”
Another grant recipient, Onyeka Udegbunam, of Enugu-based NGO, Hope Givers Initiative, said her community-based project would train women on food nutrition.
Udegbunam said: “We observed that the lands are fertile but many women do not know how to harness with the farm produce for adequate balance diet.
“So, we intend to teach the women how to prepare what they have to feed their children and their families well to avoid malnutrition.”
The Enugu-based NGO received N708,000 ($4,294) for the project, which also includes education and training on HIV.
US gives N56.3m grant to 46 Nigerian NGOs
