The Town of Lincoln in Massachusetts, a community in the United States has donated tonnes of relief items to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria through the Peace Institute.
Founder of the Institute, and also a Nigerian Human rights lawyer, Hauwa Ibrahim said the materials include clothes, bicycles, a car, tents, beddings mosquito nets amongst. Professor Hauwa who is a lawyer at Harvard University and the winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Human Rights in 2005 said the need to assist the less privileged stemmed from the need to assist the Chibok Girls and with the situation surrounding their abduction and the communities displacement and others.
While distributing some of the relief materials, Professor Hauwa said the aim was to put smiles on the faces of the less privileged and assist them in what little way she can.In 2014, she was invited by President Jonathan when the Chibok girls were missing to help with the investigation and she saw first-hand the plights of iDPs in Nigeria. She also visited in 2017 when Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo invited her on an alleged abuse of human rights against the armed forces and they were taken to The Hague.
“I saw the need I saw in 2014 when the Chibok issue started but this time I knew I must do something,” she said. She persuaded people in the community on the idea of donating unused items within two weeks and they agreed.
She said the community bought into the initiative as a noble objective and within a short period she had three 40 feet empty garages filled with over 10,000 bags of materials containing shoes, clothes and beddings.
The materials have been distributed to some less privileged in Nasarawa and Kano states.
“With that we have not even exhausted what is in one container. We still have tonnes to go. And we hope to reach more of those people in need across the country,” she noted.