I appreciate the ROTDOW team for the privilege given me to talk about the hidden giants this evening. I do not take it for granted. Thank you for allowing me to add my voice.

I also appreciate all the stakeholders on this platform, you have been so wonderful, thank you for your contributions every week to address the issue of leaders of tomorrow. You have directly and indirectly impacted lives. You are sowing seed and I pray it will grow and be fruitful.

I called these set of people hidden giants because there are lots of potential hidden in them, everybody is born great no matter the type of family you are born into. The bible made us to realize that everything God created is good. Also we are all born equal The bible made us to realize that when God created man, he created them make and female. This means there was no discrimination. Therefore, the gender equality we are advocating for is made by God, but that is a topic for another time. I have been working with Vulnerable children for over three decades.  As a retired teacher I have seen and interacted with a lot of them and see in practical what they are go through. Most of them are very brilliant, but when the scourge of poverty bites them hard, they lose focus and some don’t get out of it especially if the parents are the careless type. This means we have some determined poor parents that give their children good and sound education. Poverty is of the mind.

The crisis the world is facing and most especially in our country Nigeria emancipated from neglected children.  They are lured into Boko Haram, Kidnapping, Armed robbery, and ritual practices – majority of the sexual assault is for ritual. Think of it, is there any sexual satisfaction a three month or two month old can give to a man. Or is there any sexual satisfaction in sex you do in fear, anxiety and panic. The few privileged children you find among armed robbers or kidnappers are product of poor parenting

WHO IS A VULNERABLE CHILD?

A vulnerable child is a child under the age of 18 years and currently at high risk of lacking adequate care and protection.

Accordingly, all children are vulnerable by nature compared to adults, but some are more critically vulnerable than others. Child vulnerability is a downward spiral where each show leads to a new level of vulnerability and each new level opens us up for a host of new risks. In other words, the probability of a child experiencing a negative outcome rises with each shock.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN DEFINED AS VULNERABLE

• Orphaned by the death of one or both parents
• Abandoned by parents
• Living in extreme poverty
• Living with a disability
• Children of poor ignorant people living with disability and are not aware of any assistance from government
• Affected by armed conflicts
• Abused by patents or their caregivers
• Malnourished due to extreme poverty
• HIV positive
• Children of I don’t care parents
• Children of sick parents
• Children that the parents lack understanding of family planning
• Finally, those marginalized stigmatized, or even discriminated against

All vulnerable children have one common denominator; they have no reliable social safety networks on hand to depend upon in order to adequately manage the risk to which they daily exposed.

Globally an estimated 163 million children are orphans having lost one or both parents. Millions more are vulnerable due to the effects of illness and poverty

One teeth of the poorest children globally are least likely to attend school and are most likely   end up in a perpetuation of intern generational cycles of poverty. Vulnerable children may forgo   education for work or household duties, suffer from psycho-social problems and experience greater than household poverty. Without education, these populations miss the opportunity to acquire the skills to better their lives

In Nigeria 17.5 million children are orphans or vulnerable children, 2.5 million of these children are AIDS orphans. Although it is customary in Nigeria for extended family and community members to care for orphans and vulnerable children, the capacity and responses of these individuals and households have been over extended by the growing number of vulnerable and the complexity of their needs.

The big question is can these set of children survive when the children of the privileged are struggling to survive. It will amaze you the parents of the vulnerable children are running the same race with career woman. The career woman who works in banks leaves home around 6:00 am while the parents of vulnerable children leave home 5:00 am to village markets on daily basis and they have no definite closing hour. Not that they are not hard working but they are created like that. The bible says poor people will not seize in a midst but majority of the children if giving the opportunity will take their parents and community out of poverty. And that is why we need lots of work to do because so many destinies are tied to our work.  Both the poor and the rich at facing the challenges of the world.

A matter of concern now. Will these vulnerable children go back to school after COVID-19 pandemic?  Some have already engaged in menial job for survival e.g. Selling pure water, loader, and errands boys for yahoo groups.

The vulnerable children in hard to reach area that have no access to online programs arranged by government will they be able to pass WAEC, NECO, Placement exam?

With the rate of sexual abuse majority will end up as teenage mothers after the pandemic.

The survival of this vulnerable children lies in our hands as stakeholders

• As we collectively fight for domestication of child abuse laws we must fight for social package for this children
• We will have more than fourteen states represented on this platform let us get the data of the vulnerable children in our state, local government. All we need to school is to visit schools we will have firsthand information. Data is a good tool to demand from the government
• Provision of free essential text books eg. English, Mathematics textbooks, Civic in public schools
• School feeding program are intended to alleviate short term hunger, improve nutrition and correction of children. In other words, low income families to be encouraged to put their children in public schools where they can benefit from School Feeding Programs, instead of enrolling them in private schools that increases their level of poverty. School feeding not only encourages children to get into schools but it can also attract new enrollments from marginalized communities.  If appropriately targeted on the basis of poverty and food insecurity. It can relieve short term hunger and tackle micro-nutrient   efficiencies   especially when combined with food fortification and deworming.

Extending the reach of school feeding to orphanages.  This can provide a social safety net that helps address issues of irregularity and gender in balance keeping these children in schools especially girls can reduce their vulnerability including HIV, rape etc. If the program is well managed and monitored.  Let us voluntarily monitor it in our states and write report

• HIV prevention interventions to vulnerable children and their caregivers
• Read HIV intervention information to the VC caregivers through reproductive health education, this was especially important for caregivers of reproductive age and those with adolescent children because they could reinforce this information when they went home.
• We should preach the gospel of family planning. Poor people have tendency to give birth to uncontrollable number of children because of ignorance
• We should encourage caregivers to visit government health facilities for free immunization, deworming and Vitamin E supplementation for their children
• Pregnant women to access free Multivitamin and IPT to healthy babies and to prevent birth related challenges.
• Don’t make enterprises of the vulnerable children when you are privileged to collect grant for their uptake
• Visit government schools, donation of pencil, biro, exercise books, sandal, school uniform to identified VC go a long way
• Encourage low income parents to put their children in public schools
• Economic empowerment to parents/caregivers.

In conclusion, the word of God made us to realize that poor people will never cease from our midst, we cannot eradicate them but we can alleviate their poverty. Let us develop passion for this children, they are ignorance of what is happening to them. They did not choose the family they found themselves and as such should not suffer for what they did not know. Let us love them, care support, protect them, make friends with them they are loving children. Make them your project, it is highly rewarding.

Facilitated by Mrs. Olabisi Omolona, the Chief Executive Officer of ROTDOW.