Plan International, a non-governmental organisation, said it had implemented projects in five Local Government Areas of Yobe to promote social cohesion and restore peaceful coexistence among people in the Lake Chad Basin.
The local Government Areas are, Damaturu, Fune, Yusufari, Bursari and Nguru.
The Country Director, Plan International, Mr Charles Usie said this in Abuja on Thursday at the end of the project ceremony.
Usie said the project funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany, would ensure lasting peace in the region.
He stressed the need for more support to ensure that the project continued for the rehabilitation of refugees and internally displaced persons.
“This is a project which was designed by Plan International, but funded by the German government. The project is mainly around social cohesion for the Lake Chad Basin.
“The Lake Chad Basin is a region that has been affected by war. So the good people of Germany decided to set up this project to build back solidarity, cohesion and peaceful coexistence among people.
“We choose to use the provision of healthcare as an opportunity or as a landing base to build social cohesion. That’s what this project is all about,” he said.
He said that crisis in the Lake Chad basin which had lasted since 2009, was affecting millions of people in the northeast Nigeria, far north Cameroon and Niger Republic.
Usie commended the German government for the gesture in providing the projects that would facilitate development in the region.
Mr Gabriel Yafeyi, Project Manager, Plan International, said that the intervention was able to produce primary healthcare centers in Damaturu, Fune, Yusufari, Bursari and Nguru communities of Yobe.
Yefeyi commended the Yobe government, its Ministries of Education and Health for their open door policies in ensuring the full implementation of the projects.
He said the project yielded fruitful results as 100 per cent of its targeted health centres, were able to offer appropriate Sexual Reproductive Health Rights of the people.
“We reached about 65,000 persons/ households from the health component of the project and from the social equation component of the project.
“In terms of achievement, 10 facilities were constructed and we were able to make sure that we donated drugs for use in those facilities.
“We were also able to build the capacity of community members to implement and integrate on conflict cases and to build and promote peace within the community,” he said.
Also speaking, Paula Blanco, Programme Specialist, West Africa, Plan International, Germany, said the project had been a success following its impact on the community and the people.
Blanco said that Nigerian refugees were the main beneficiaries of the project.
She said the aim was to work with IDPs and host communities so as to contribute to the social cohesion among the different groups in the target communities.
“Our next step is to figure out the second phase of this project. We are having this conversation on how the project can continue in the next phase.
“For us, it’s important to continue working on social cohesion, which is something that we really need in the context of the Lake Chad region.
“We have learnt many lessons from this project and we are trying to include these lessons in the new phase of the project ideas that we plan,” she said.
