THE Street Priest Incorporated, an Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has said that it aimed at raising funds for the street children’s medical care to reduce their death rate in Calabar, Cross River.
Mr Miracle France, the Chief Story Teller of the Organisation, made the remark while speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar on Wednesday.
He spoke on the sideline of a 2-day campaign, being rounded up on Wednesday, and explained that the programme was in partnership with Asi Ukpo Hospital and Comprehensive Cancer Center, among other institutions.
France attributed the reason for the campaign programme to the huge number of street children who, he said, died due to lack of healthcare.
According to him, we just didn’t want to lose more of these children to medical cases irrespective of the fact that they don’t have access to healthcare.
“So we decided to organise this campaign to raise funds that can help tackle the health challenges of these children, popularly called ‘skolombo’ in Calabar,” he said.
He said that the recent medical exercise carried out by the NGO revealed that none of the street children were living with the Human Immune Virus (HIV).
France noted that it was the decision of the organisation to take this step further by testing the children for malaria in partnership with Asi Ukpo Hospital.
He stated that between 2016 and 2024, a number of the street children were lost to stage four tuberculosis, HIV and tetanus infections.
He said that to curb the incident which kept reoccurring, the NGO had decided to partner some healthcare organisation to save the children by ensuring free or subsidised care before their situation worsened.
France explained that apart from Asi Ukpo Hospital, the organisation was working to partner with the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) and some key pharmacies in town for the benefit of the children.
He said that the support from the state government was ineffective due to the continuous change of personnels but noted and commended the assistance of Sen. Asuquo Ekpenyong, Dr Betta Edu and others.
France, however, said that they were not running a facility for the children as many of them ran a way from homes due to poverty, peer pressure, poor parenting among other factors.
“What we do is to run a rehabilitation system by tracing a street child’s home and begin working with the child by reforming his mind, after which he’s taking back to his home.’’
He explained that after getting the child home, they would then partner with the family for the child’s basic needs while they concentrate on his education or vocation, depending on the child’s preference.
According to France, we have some success stories.
On his part, one of the street children, a 14 year old boy, Miracle Nsifon, told NAN that he left home because his single mother was poor.
Nsifon said that he and his group were sleeping at the Mary Slessor Roundabout while begging around the Bogobiri area of Calabar.
He, however, said that he would like to go to school if given the opportunity.
