Yil Fomwul Gonsum joins forces with two other NGOs to bring relief in IDP Camps
Last week, we published a report about Dirnan Samuel and his work with IDP camps in Plateau State, Nigeria. Today we bring you another intriguing storing from Yil Fomwul Gonsum and her team, who are also making an impact at IDP camps as a result of the ongoing situation that has left many people homeless in the region.
Hello Yil, Please briefly tell us about yourself and your team.
My name is Yil Fomwul Gonsum. I am a Film Maker, Actor and Humanitarian. I am the Director of Saphira Global Center for Social Development and I am one of the organizers of PROJECT QUICK HEALTH/AID IDPs in Jos Plateau State. Three NGOs came together to form the project, my organization (Saphira Global Center for Social Development), Voice for the Girl Child and African Child and Mother Care Initiative. All three are local NGOs based in Jos. We have been working in IDP camps across the state as early as we started having an influx of IDPs after a series of attacks in some villages by “Fulani Herdsmen” and the journey so far for us has been that of mixed feelings ranging from excitement and passion to help, to emotional and personal attachment with the victims.
I’m curious to know what inspired the outreach to the IDPs beyond the normal IDP camp visit people engage in.
What inspired our project within the IDP camps was the urgent need for attention to their basic needs. We were coming back from a community myself my colleague Mildred and I got a call to go to one of the camps. When we got there, we saw lots of people especially women, some with babies and others between the ages of 2-5 years, pregnant women and even orphans. Some were looking confused while some were trying to find themselves. What captured our attention was a woman from the Gashish District of Barkin Ladi, she rushed into the compound with a little girl strapped to her back and looking confused. So we called her and asked her what the problem was and she narrated how her daughter is really sick. The girl was running a temperature and was looking very pale. She said she was referred to a nearby hospital from the camp but she was told by the hospital that they had too many patients and couldn’t attend to her. We quickly picked them up and went to Marisol hospital and called Dr Attah (The owner of the hospital). She needed Two pints of blood (which wasn’t available in the hospital) amongst other things. We rushed to Plateau hospital and even though they had closed for the day we placed some calls and begged to be attended to. Eventually, we got one pint of blood and got another from a donor. Our little girl was later attended to by Dr Attah at close to no cost and after a few days she was fine and we took them back to the camp with her mother.
After that incident, we decided we needed to go back to the camp to see how we could help because we were sure there are lots of other cases like that or even worse. We realized there was no structure in the camp for a quick response and we decided to take it up. The idea is to intervene as quickly as we can to control any damages before solid interventions from Government and big organizations arrive. That was our inspiration to start interventions in IDP camps. We went back to the camp the next day to see if we could help with other things and someone from the community came and met us that IDPs were in dire need of basic essentials like Health care, sanitary pads, diapers, clothing, etc., we knew we didn’t have the needed capacity to tend to all those needs so we decided to use our platforms which is our organizations to seek individual help.
How did you assemble your team? And how has work with them been?
I assembled my team of volunteers (Saphira Global Center for Social Development). Mildred did the same (Voice for the Girl Child). Dr Attah followed suit (African Child and Mother Care Initiative). We asked our Pharmacist friend Walshak Dagwer the owner of (Damark Pharmacy) to join us in soliciting drug donations from his colleagues and other well-meaning individuals. The idea was to specifically set up a medical outreach in the camp because people were really sick, especially children. We all came together to form a team, Dr Attah is a paediatric consultant and we were absolutely sure the children were in good hands. We agreed to work under an umbrella hence we’re all passionate individuals but with platforms and we decided to call it PROJECT QUICK HEALTH AND QUICK AID IDPs to avoid any form of confusion regarding identity and for each organization to take credit for the work independently. I and Mildred had to help with other aspects like toiletries, clothing, kitchen utensils etc. While Dr Attah and Walshak help appeal to medical personnel to come out and volunteer and also with drug donations.
Our major challenge was how to get the resources. We had a collective mission, and we were positive we could help. Did we have the resources? No. Were we discouraged by that? No. We knew that one way or another we would be able to make a difference. We were the only ones on the ground during that period and there were absolutely no interventions from anywhere yet. Even though volunteers of the Red Cross were on the ground, they were incapacitated as they were awaiting the coming of their mother body (ICRC) to come for assessment first before interventions start. MSF AKA Doctors without borders also came to the Plateau State on their own health mission as required by their organization and we shared ideas on how to engage. For instance, if after our medical outreach, we see the need for further interventions we communicate with them on that and they take it up in the affected camps. We as a team have been having a very smooth working relationship so far. Even though the journey itself has not been a smooth one it’s been very rough and tough but when you’re working with the right people that share your ideology then the sky is your limit.
How would you gauge the response of both the government and private individuals to the IDP crisis? Where have both fallen short?
The response from Government and from individuals are far apart, let me break it down for you…
Individuals are the lifesavers regarding this project I dare to say, they’re the ones that responded swiftly to our SOS call on the plight of IDPs, the response was overwhelming. I have been doing development work for years now and I have never put out a cry for help and gotten a massive response as I did on this project. Because we’re a team we work in agreement as a team in regard to what’s best for us. My friends both here and abroad gave me a pleasant surprise with their passion and willingness to help. As a matter of fact, they’re the ones that encouraged us to keep going. Initially, we were concentrating on just one camp but due to the cry for help in other camps, we had to move further and further. Even when we thought we couldn’t continue anymore our friends and family refused, and they pushed us to keep going. You would think they will get tired of giving but no. Someone told me Yil if you guys stop what you’re doing with the IDPs now what happens to them? I didn’t have the appropriate answer, all I remember saying was, “We will find a way.” We have been getting lots of encouragement from individuals and even organizations, some organizations came and volunteered with us for some time so also have individuals. We still get calls from people asking how they can help. The other day a lady called me and said she wanted to volunteer her time to teach children in camps, isn’t that a beautiful soul?
The government was slow in responding to the situation in the IDP camps, and up till now, it has not provided alternative health care for IDPs which is a major concern for us. How can people that are fleeing from death be left to die after finding Safety? I don’t understand this and I don’t intend to. SEMA (State Emergency Management Agency) came only a few days later and they came along with a car full of misplaced priorities. I mean how can you come to intervene in an IDP camp as a quick response unit with bags of grains that are not grounds for people to do what with them? Then you bring mats and mattresses. Mind you, these mats and mattresses don’t usually go around and because of that the mode of sharing is first given to the sick then pregnant women, then women with children and then the aged. If this is called Quick intervention then I guess that’s a great job. Good thing there are now two committees that have been inaugurated to Supply relief materials in camp and the other to work towards the resettlement of IDPs so we’re hoping that things get better.
What was the response of people on both social media and life to your call for support and contribution of relief materials?
Our major contributions and donations came from social media because that is the only medium we used to portray the reality going on in IDP camps and to solicit support. As I mentioned earlier the support was massively beyond our expectations. Honestly, people responded both via social media and in person. Our first cry for help was on Facebook and it went viral, people from states as far as Lagos was calling in to see how they could help. Our friends and family in Abuja played a very huge role in helping and encouraging us. Even people from the East. That is the reason why we have been able to cover almost all the camps spread across the state with a team of medical personnel, staff and volunteers giving them free Medical care and relief materials.
What are the major misconceptions you feel people have about victims of violence?
One major misconception about the IDPs is that they’re the ones displacing themselves. Or even if they claim they’re being attacked by “Fulani Herdsmen” that they called it upon themselves by stealing and killing the cows. This is a misconception that needs serious attention if only relevant authorities will pay closer attention to the incessant killings and stop giving them names and excuses.
Beyond hunger and lack of clothing as well as healthcare, what are the other problems IDPs have that are not so obvious but as real as others? (Psychological, social, etc)
Well, healthcare is definitely what should be given priority in the camps and also they need more suitable places as makeshift camps since the government is slow in resettling them. Pregnant women and lactating mothers should be given special attention. This is because the living conditions in these camps are not suitable for newborns. We have had cases of women giving birth in camp and losing babies shortly after. At least I know about three cases of such in Riyom IDP Camp. Thankfully we haven’t heard or seen cases of rape and sexual harassment is mostly the case in other camps across the country.
What is your advice to embittered Nigerians at home who are angry with the situation and don’t know what to do?
When you sit and keep complaining about something yet you don’t do anything about it because you feel it’s not your responsibility then you’re part of the problem Get up, get involved and do the best you can. I wish we the citizenry knew how much power we have over our leaders. If we know our rights we will know where it starts and ends. Demanding good governance is not by whining on social media it is by being participatory, getting involved and being part of the change. If you don’t get involved in governance you will never know how it works and you will never know when it’s time for you to demand what’s right to be done. My advice to those that are frustrated is that they should be proactive. “A winner is a dreamer who never gives up” Nelson Mandela.
How can people still contribute to the care of those in IDP Camps?
We as a team have decided that anyone that wants to contribute or donate anything can go directly to the camps to either give them relief materials themselves or through the camp officials. We don’t go to individuals to collect funds or any form of help except for those that reach out and insist we take them. That’s why in our initial pleas for help we didn’t give out any account numbers to the public in fact to date you will never see an account number asking for funding for IDP Camps on any of our posts. Some individuals reached out to us privately and insisted they only had cash and were not close by. Because they wanted to help we couldn’t deny them that so we agreed as a team to have a central account number for transparency and accountability and then we unanimously picked one organizational account number for that.
You can check out previous stories from this series here
For more information you can contact Yil Fomwul Gonsum at:
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