Orphans and Vulnerable Children were screened and enrolled into 2015 Gede’s OVC project in Jikoko, Durumi and Katampe communities. The exercise will continue in 12 selected communities in the FCT and will allow 125 beneficiaries to be registered into several vocational training centres and schools for this year’s support.

Using the National child-vulnerability index as a guide for enrollment, the exercise raised one very important issue on the plight of the increasing number of children in rural communities who are orphaned by AIDS and other causes. They remain vulnerable to a range of social vices as there are limited safety nets to engage them and address their basic needs. Gede’s partnership with Addax & Oryx Foundation since 2010, has offered a platform for stigma reduction activities through regular stakeholders’ participation and has empowered hundreds of orphans (who were initially out of schools) to be reenrolled and acquire basic education and life skills in order to give them the foundations on which to build promising futures. An added intervention is being planned, which will promote the mental health of this target population.