The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said it will continue to partner with the government of Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria, to provide quality child protection services for vulnerable children.

UNICEF child protection services official, Wilfred Mamah, made this known in Kaduna at the official inauguration of cash disbursement to 2,674 Almajiri children under the Children in Street Situation programme.

According to Mamah, the partnership would protect vulnerable children against abuse, violence, and neglect.

The programme is under the European Union-funded Strengthening Access to Justice for Children on the Move and other Vulnerable Children project.

Mamah pointed out that the vulnerability of children on the streets was heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said, ‘UNICEF’s partnership with the state through the Ministry for Human Services and Social Development (MHSSD) recorded the highest number of successful re-unifications of 10,817 Almajiri children, the highest in the country’.

‘This life-saving reunification of the children was captured using the innovative Child Protection Information Management (CPIMS) tool’.

Nigeria has about 75 million children under the age of 18, with 41 million of them living in poverty, despite Nigeria’s rich oil reserves.

Recent figures from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) show that Nigeria now has 20.2 million out-of-school children.

The UNICEF official explained that the Children in Street Situation and Adolescent Girls programme was being implemented in Kaduna following the success of the reunification programme.

The child protection specialist disclosed that 209,950 children in street situations, including adolescent girls, were captured in the CPIMS based on their vulnerability, comprising 105,726 Almajiri children outside family care and 104,224 out-of-school adolescent girls.

Photo source: GPE