NGO reconstructs, hands over house to 35-year-old widow, victim of Plateau attacks

An NGO, Jinkai Aid Initiative on Wednesday handed over a house to a 35-year-old widow and mother of four who had been devastated by violent attacks in Plateau.

Board chairman of the NGO, Prof. Emmanuel Gye, told a news conference in Jos that the objective was to alleviate the sufferings of victims of violent attacks.

He said the NGO was determined to reconstruct residential buildings of the most vulnerable victims of the attacks.

“The first beneficiary, Mrs Rahab Zakwe, a 35-year-old widow, was selected by her entire community of Ancha in Miango, Bassa Local Government Area as the most vulnerable to receive the succour.

“The beneficiary selected the building design she desired and she was delighted to receive the keys of her home after its completion.

“In our quest to relieve the challenges of these communities, we are starting here on the Plateau with the ambition of extending this support and services to others parts of the nation,” Gye said.

He explained that the number of houses to be rebuilt or to be built newly would be determined by the resources at the NGO’s disposal.

“We hope the template would be copied and replicated globally,” he said.

Gye said the NGO had trained hundreds of community youths in the sourcing of local materials to build modern houses that could withstand the test of time.

He added that the youths were also equipped with marketing skills to make them to become self-reliant.

He said that the NGO was also determined to build economically-viable and thriving communities through different remedial and mitigating interventions.

Gye said the organisation was rebuilding some of the violence-impacted communities with funding from donors and urged governments and well-meaning individuals to partner with it to support the victims to live better lives.

He advised governments to start issuing land titles to ancestral land owners to enable them to secure properties and use them as collateral when the need arose.