IDP Chronicles: Plateau children displaced by violence at risk of homelessness

Not less than 50 children who call the Jos-based ‘Kids with Vision’ orphanage home are at the risk of becoming homeless following a recent notice of eviction served by the owners of the premises.

Over the years, the children, who are victims of crises in communities across Plateau state, have been moved around from house to house. They have lived in the current apartment for only two years.

Since the orphanage was established in 2012, the children have been evicted from three different houses over increased rent or inability to sustain annual rent payments.

‘WHY I FOUNDED THE ORPHANAGE’

Violent attacks across communities in Jos arising from communal clashes, religious conflict or farmer-herder crises have led to killings, destruction of properties and displacement of residents.

Recounting her experience, Grace Solomon, founder of the orphanage, said her father died when she was barely two years old and her mother passed on in 2007 — two years after she completed her diploma programme at Bayero University in Kano state.

She said her experience with “sexual and physical abuse” made her determined to protect as many children as possible from such encounters.

“I was barely 11 years old when my paternal uncle molested me sexually. My maternal uncle abused me physically. He actually put ground pepper in my vagina because I was bed-wetting. All these happened when my mother was still alive but we were very vulnerable,” she said.

Speaking on the establishment of the orphanage, 45-year-old Solomon said the decision was taken to bring hope to orphans in Jos.

According to her, issues arising from malnutrition and other illnesses also contributed to plans to establish a home for the children.

“We stayed in the first home for one year. That was in 2012 before we moved to another place where we lived from 2013 to 2014. In 2015, we stayed in another house before we relocated in 2018 to the current place where we have been asked to move,” she said.

“While we were still living in the third house, the landlady who was a widow took us to court before she chased us out. The house rent was N350,000 but we had an outstanding N95,000 to balance up. We didn’t even have the money at that time, I begged her many times for more time but she spurned my pleas. We dragged the case for two years and in the end, the judge ruled against her.”

THE ORPHANS

According to Grace, the children have been praying for some form of intervention as they seek to find a permanent home. She said all the children are enrolled in schools across the country — about 38 of them attend schools outside the state, while eight others are registered in boarding schools in Plateau.

Theophilus Elijah, now aged 11 and from Barkin Ladi in Jos, was adopted at the age of four after gunmen attacked his village and killed his father in 2012.

In the early years after the attack that displaced his family, Grace said Elijah often woke up screaming at night.

His mother, Grace said, had to give him up for adoption when she wanted to remarry.

Simi Anita, another child at the orphanage, lost her father when gunmen attacked her community. According to Grace, when women in the village could not find their husbands the next day, they went out in groups to search for them. A large number of the men were said to have been found dead inside a well — an incident which left Anita traumatised for days.

“During one of our visits to the community, we saw the condition of the widow (Anita’s mother) and had to intervene. Anita is one of the children in the orphanage that is excelling academically,” Grace said.

CHALLENGES OF EDUCATION, FEEDING AND SHELTER

According to Grace, funding has affected the seamless management of the orphanage, with insufficient volunteers and not enough workers. She also said seeking donations has been a challenge.

She said the rent of the present premises was N1.5 million but it was reduced to N1.2 million after several pleas by the orphanage. She, however, added that the house has been placed on sale for the sum of N70 million.

Grace said it has been difficult to feed and pay school fees, adding that many workers usually quit over poor remuneration after working for five to six months.

“I sometimes walk for hours, going from one office to another, pleading with people to invest in the lives of these children but their responses are usually humiliating. I even had to start selling clothes, a small business I started, to be able to take care of some needs,” she said.

“If only I can be supported to raise the money and buy the property. The movement from one place to another is devastating.”