#IJOSCARE

Following the crises that began in June, 2018, several communities in Mangu, Bokkos, Barkin- Ladi, and Riyom Districts of Plateau State, Nigeria, were attacked and burned down resulting in over 200 deaths and the displacement of thousands of people, mainly women and children, currently housed in several camps across the country.

Stalwart Communities Africa is a social enterprise based in Nigeria which focuses on Education, Leadership and Empowerment and in response to the plight of the people, launched the #iJosCARE Project.

In carrying out this mandate, we drew up a programme known as the #iJosCARE Intervention Project. We adopted five (5) Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps to execute Community Development Projects, gathered data on demography, identified and sort to address challenges as well as partner with well-meaning individuals, organizations and government in catering to relevant identified needs. These camps included:

• COCIN RCC Bokkos Camp, Bokkos LGA.
• COCIN LCC Kassa camp, Kassa, Barkin Ladi LGA,
• COCIN RCC Heipang Camp, Heipang, Barkin Ladi LGA.
• COCIN LCC Ban-Heipang, Barkin Ladi LGA.
• Rawuru Camp

SCA currently has a spin-off Empowerment Project in partnership with Josh & Temp Garment Masters, (see website www.joshandtemp.com) an apparel company based in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, themed the “Bridge Empowerment Programme” (BEP) under #iJosCARE Project, as an empowerment intervention for internally displaced persons in Plateau State. This is a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative designed to support families through work in order to alleviate the hardship being faced. The company, through SCA, recruited participants on an ad-hoc basis as tailors for a mass uniform production, which lasted for a period of 1-2 months within agreed terms and conditions. We handled mobilization of the selected participants and ensured their weekly remuneration for the duration of the programme.

To this end, we were responsible for all persons enrolled in the programme. We ensured that they had sufficient savings upon their return to help alleviate the plight of their families, particularly their out-of-school children. SCA retained 10% of their earnings towards the Bridge Learning Intervention Programme in the IDP camps. 50% of what was left will be kept as savings by SCA and paid in full at the end of the project when they returned home, while the remaining 50% was paid to them on a weekly basis for their upkeep.