By Baban Khalid
About 500 persons with special needs from 12 local government areas of Bauchi State have benefited from the distribution of relief materials provided by the North East Development Commission (NEDC).
The intervention, carried out in collaboration with the Bauchi State Agency for Persons with Disabilities, aimed to support and improve the living conditions of people with disabilities affected by recent flood disasters in the selected local government areas of the state.
Speaking during the distribution exercise yesterday, the Executive Secretary of the Bauchi State Agency for Persons with Disabilities, Mrs. Brisca Jarom Aaron, said the gesture reflects the commitment of Governor Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir’s administration to uplift the lives of persons with special needs across the state.
She explained that the collaboration with the NEDC was initiated after assessing the conditions of flood victims, particularly persons with disabilities, who had been largely overlooked in previous humanitarian interventions.
According to her, the NEDC provided 500 cartons of spaghetti, 500 bags of rice, 200 wrappers, 50 cartons of groundnut oil, and 50 bags of sugar, among other essential items.
Aaron added that, following consultations with the agency’s management and stakeholders from various disability clusters, arrangements have been made to extend the relief distribution to the remaining eight LGAs where persons with disabilities were also affected by flooding.
For his part, the Head of Civil Service, Barr. Muhammad Sani Umar, commended the NEDC for its dedication to humanitarian service and its continued support for vulnerable groups in Bauchi State.
He urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the items received and called on parents and persons with disabilities to prioritise education by enrolling their children in both Western and Islamic schools.
Umar also appealed to the community to contribute towards addressing the challenges of street begging, out-of-school children, and street hawking, stressing that education and empowerment remain vital tools for social inclusion and sustainable development.
