COOPI holds emergency response training for Sokoto displaced persons

BY ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto

A non Governmental Organization (NGO) Cooperazione Internazionale, Nigeria (COOPI) has flagged off two days integrated emergency response workshop to displaced population in Rabah and Goronyo local government areas of Sokoto State.

The integrated response training is targeted at Protection, Nutrition, Health, WASH and Multipurpose Cash Assistance through providing positive parenting skills to caregivers, psychosocial support to children through social emotional learning, support and life skill education to adolescents as well as responding to children’s protection concerns through case management service.

Giving an overview of the training, the Senior Programme Officer of COOPI, Abdullahi Babakare, said the integrated intervention is supported by USAID and implemented by COOPI, Life Helpers Initiative (LHI) Alima, and IRC in Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina States.

The project intervention areas to be implemented by COOPI are Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Protection (Child Protection and GBV) and Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) while LHI will be implementing the Health and Nutrition segment.

According to Abdullahi, the training for which participants from Goronyo and Rabah local government areas were invited is that of MPCA which is to be implemented by LHI.

Continuing, he said the training’s title is, “Community Based Targeting Committees on the Identification (CBTC) of Poor/Vulnerable Households in Goronyo and Rabah IDPs Camps (New Arrivals).”

The training “is also aimed at equipping CBTC members with the knowledge and skills needed to identify the poor and vulnerable among them. This CBTC’s roles also include, identification of vulnerable households, data collection and assessment, community engagement, transparency and accountability, decision making, monitoring and evaluation as well as conflict resolution.”

Abdullahi stressed that the MPCA is a flexible form of financial assistance or support provided to individuals or households in need, typical of humanitarian or social assistance programs.

He further clarified that the assistance is for specific households’ needs such as food, shelter, healthcare, hence giving recipients the freedom to decide how to use the funds based on their most pressing needs.

While divulging that poverty opens doors to vulnerability, Abdullahi classified vulnerability to include, economic, health, social, environmental, food security, shelter and psychosocial vulnerability.