Mrs. Grace, rewarding one of her outstanding staff at the dinner.
Executive Director of a renowned non governmental organization, NGO, in Gombe State, Kishimi Shelter and Care Foundation, Mrs. Grace Samuel, has encouraged other NGO’s to source funding for their activities internally when none comes from external sources.
She stated this against the backdrop that many well meaning NGO’s now fold up shortly after starting up as a result of lack of funding from international donor organizations.
Mrs. Grace was speaking at an end of year dinner organized to honour staff and partners who made sacrifices and contributed to the growth and development of Kishimi Shelter and Care Foundation held at the Multipurpose Hall of the Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare.
She described as unfortunate, a situation where well meaning NGOs in the State will begin activities that have great impact on communities but will soon fold up for lack of funding.
She said, “Organizations need to be resilient and focused to be able to go far. In my case, I was so passionate about it to the extent that I used to run the organization with my pension money before external funding started coming in after national and international organizations saw what we were doing”.
According to her, Kishimi Shelter and Care Foundation has worked on several projects in Akko, Kaltunga, Balanga, Dukku, Yamaltu-Deba and Gombe Local Government Areas of the State as well as other bigger projects in Maiduguri, Borno State, where activities of insurgents have ravaged communities.
The Dinner also witnessed the presentation of gifts to some Staff in recognition of their hard work and contributions to the organization.
Other highlights of the Dinner were the presentation of goodwill messages from sister organizations in the State such as Life and Hope Initiative, Lawanti Community Development Foundation and Child Protection Network.
Responding on behalf of those honoured, Mr. Ibrahim Istifanus, while expressing gladness over the recognition, said the gesture will spur them to do more for humanity and the growth of the organization.
Speaking in an interview shortly after the event, Mrs. Grace said activities that excited her the most were seeing Internally Displaced Persons, IDP, children from 6-15 years who can now read and express themselves, adolescents beginning to know more about their reproductive health and taking decisions for themselves as well as improving gender issues where boys now do house chores rather than leaving it to only girls, and many other issues.
