Leprosy Mission grants partners N152m for children with disabilities’ needs

The Leprosy Mission Nigeria, donated N152m to 17 partner organisations  in order to ensure the inclusion and support welfare of children living with disabilities in Nigeria.

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The donation was made on Thursday, in Abuja for the purpose of supporting 2,212 children living with disabilities as well as 940 parents and caregivers.

TLMN implemented the programme under a five-year strategic plan as a ‘Strategic Partner Organization of the Liliane Foundation’.

The National Director, TLMN, Dr. Sunday Udo, said that the organisation was implementing the programme to ensure that children with disabilities get all the necessary support needed to function like their counterparts.

“We were appointed by the Liliane Foundation to anchor their project in Nigeria as a key partner. We just issued out N152m roughly for this programme to 17 organisations working in 15 states to meet and provide services to those children we talked about.

“Every year, we issue a call that is centered on a framework designed for five years to look at children and youngsters, from 0-25 that have disabilities in Nigeria.

“We issued the call and informed prospective grantees to apply on the basis of the criteria we set, and to meet up with the requirements.

“We go through a process of administrative and general checks to identify and come down to the number that we have today.

“When we made the call, we had over 300 applications, but today we are giving grants to only 17. We are hoping that this grant will span 15 states.

“For this year, we covered inclusive education first. We are also covering living support for parents of those with disabilities. We are also covering inclusive labour, sexual rights and reproductive health,” Udo said.

He, however, urged the partner organisations to spend the funds judiciously and at the targeted population for the expected impact.
He added, “And hopefully, as they go out to implement, we want to make sure that they come out with results. We want results. We have already planned that between now and before the end of the year, for a specific time to go and visit them and see how far they have gone. This is to ensure that the money is actually getting value for what it was meant for.”

Director, Special Needs, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Mrs. Nkechi Onwukwe, thanked the Foundation for the donation.

She said, “We thank the Liliane Foundation for the funds and the Leprosy Mission Nigeria for being a worthy partner that is eager to see that persons with disabilities live better lives.

“The ministry has been partnering with the leprosy Mission and we count so much on what they are doing.

“Those in position to assess are aware that they do not make noise, but are doing a great deal to ensure support for persons living with disabilities.”

MTO/NAN