As part of measures to curb homeless children on the streets, and reduce rampant human trafficking and irregular migration, Emmanuel World Children Foundation is ready to empower 20 girls in various skills after rescuing them from Senegal and other countries from prostitution.
The Executive Director, Emmanuel World Children Foundation, Mr. Emmanuel Adaramola, made this known while addressing journalists after meeting with different NGOs in Benin City, the Edo State Capital.
He decried high rate of irregular migration and increase of street kids in Nigeria which he attributed to poverty, unemployment, insecurity and many other factors.
Mr. Adaramola said that the focus of the foundation was to make sure that the number of irregular migrants and street kids reduced to the barest minimum.
He said: “Emmanuel World Children Foundation, a Non Government Organization(NGO) started twenty-six years ago. Our focus is to work with children, orphans and vulnerable people in the society with our head office in Akure, Ondo State.
He continued: ” We have capacity building development for people that work with children. We work in the area of human trafficking, which actually is the area that brought us to Edo State.
According to him, “We have 61 survivors from Senegal that we are working with and 20 of them are from Edo State. What we do with their data is family tracing, family integration, assessment and trying to help the survivors to start a vocation.
“We also empower them to fit into the society, and get their lives back on track. These are some of the things we are doing. We are in the state to start a support group,” Mr. Emmanuel buttressed.
On how their international partners have helped the foundation in the aspect of rescuing the girls in a hotel in Senegal, Mr. Emmanuel explained that Free The Slave (FTS) with a regional office in Ghana had been handy to the foundation. He stated that their partners were in USA, Senegal and other countries of the world.
According to him: “Free The Slave initiative are our major partners in curbing irregular migration. Our partners actually rescued the girls that were trafficked to Senegal and other countries.
“They sheltered the rescued girls and made arrangements for them to come back to Nigeria.
“After receiving the rescued girls from the airport, we take over and work together through correspondence to ensure the victims or girls settle in Nigeria and reintegrate into the society.”
Speaking further, Mr. Adaramola stated: Emmanuel World Children Foundation has plans for the street kids. The foundation has been working with street kids for years, and has a lot of them that are successful, married and doing well today.
The Executive Director of Emmanuel World Children Foundation also posited that the place would be used to train the migrants within six months they were expected to spend there. He also assured that the girls would be empowered after the training for them to have a means of livelihood.
Mr Adaramola decried increasing number of irregular migrants which he ascribed to several factors like broken homes, insecurity, poverty and unemployment.
Speaking further, he said their aim in the next two years was to set up an innovation hub within the environment to work together where they would get resources for them to expand.
Some of the victims to be empowered said trafficking them to Senegal to do prostitution was a miserable experience and waste of time.
They stated that what they were made to do there was different from what the traffickers told them they would do.
“Even the journey by road from Nigeria to Senegal is not a safe route. We take a lot of risks,” they said.
One of them said her madam tricked her by assuring her that she would continue her education in Senegal but did not let her know she was taking her there to do prostitution.
Another survivor who spoke about her ordeal said, it was not easy for them in Senegal doing prostitution. She advised people not to embark on any journey they don’t know the specific job they would do in the place. She lamented untold human hardship in Senegal they were subjected to.
Foundation empowers 20 rescued migrants in Edo, decries huge number of street kids in Nigeria
