From Tom Garba, Yola
A non-government organisation (NGO), Positive Awareness Against Drug Abuse Initiative (PADAI), has donated Christmas clothes to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Yola, Adamawa State.
Presenting the donation, which comprised clothes for women and children in a ceremony at the St Theresa Catholic Church Camp in Yola, Secretary of the organization, Mallam Abdulkareem Salihu, said the gesture was to ensure that the IDPs were carried along in the festive period.
Salihu said the NGO, which made similar donation to IDPs during Sallah celebration, felt it should extend same during Christmas.
Salihu said the clothes were contribution of members from United States of America to the IDPs.
While re-iterating the commitment of the NGO to continue to contribute to the welfare of the IDPs, Salihu said the NGO was established to fight drug abuse in the society and encourage youths to utilise their energy in the nation-building process.
“PADAI is an organisation whose responsibility is to assist in eradicating and reorienting our youths against social vices. We believe that if our youths are off drugs, the issue of terrorism will soon be a thing of the past”, Salihu said.
Receiving the donation on behalf of the IDPs, the Bishop of Yola Diocese, Most Rev Stephen Mamza, lauded the NGO for the gesture, noting that they were the first so far to bring Christmas clothes to IDPs in the camp.
Mamza who said the camp committee would ensure judicious distribution of the clothes to the IDPs, urged other organisations to emulate the gesture to enable the IDPs celebrate the Christmas like other Nigerians.
Also speaking, representatives of the IDPs, Mr Isa Takuma and Mrs Layatu Haruna, commended the NGO and others who had continued to remain their source of support and prayed for speedy end to the insurgency to enable them return to their respective communities.
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