SANI DUTSINMA.
Early Child Education can be seen as way forward toward reducing Out of School Children, Street begging and (Almajiri), impoverished Boys especially in northern Nigeria.
A retired civil servant in kebbi State and founder of Almajiri Support Initiative of Nigeria, Comrade Shehu Umar disclosed this in an interview with radio Nigeria correspondent in Birnin Kebbi.
He said that the center was established 20 years back aimed at transforming the lives of younger generation especially Almajiri children to have access to western and Islamic education and to acquire skills acquisition training, to tackle youth unemployment and harness human potential.
According to him, the center catter for Almajiri of all categories whether deep, dump, blind, cripple, leprosy with full training in various skills to enable them to stand on their feets in areas like , weaving, tailoring, welding, hand set and computer repairs, cosmetology among others, adding that, the center is giving lunch to every participant daily.
Comrade Umar said the initiative is also aimed at supporting government effort toward ending the menace of Almajirchi, Street begging and hawking by enabling these children to contribute meaningfully to the economy and call on government at all levels, wealthy individuals and organizations to assist the center to achieve the desired objectives.
According to him, the children were also tough reading, writing and arithmetic to enable them to have basic knowledge before proceeding to formal classes.
Some of the volunteer teachers in the center advocate for government support to motivate them to teach effectively as they have adult literacy classes including men and women.
Some of the trainees at the center speaks to Radio Nigeria about their experiences and also commended the effort of the founder of the center and promised to use the opportunity
judiciously and impact knowledge to others.
They also called on government to support them to further their studies.
