Mile Six Orphanage, Jalingo: Need For Urgent Attention
By Our Correspondent
The popular formerly UMCN Orphanage, now belonging to the Global Methodist Church, located in Mile Six, Jalingo the Taraba State capital is one of the major homes catering for orphans in the state.
Politicians, private individuals, government officials and non governmental organizations have been visiting the home to share in the condition and plight of the orphans who are kept in the facility due to parental abandonment or due to one societal challenge or the other.
During such visitations, various kinds of items including food and non food materials are presented to the management of the home to help cater for needs of the inmates.
However, not much is heard of the orphanage of recent when one compares the present situation with the previous years when hardly a week or month passes without the orphanage receiving visitors.
Can this situation be attributed the current economic hardships being experienced across the country or the people no longer feel or consider the predicaments of the orphans?
Findings by Echo Express revealed that the low patronage by members of the public is now having negative effects on the inmates.
A source close to the facility who does not want to be mentioned, alleged that the inmates are no longer feeding well due to poor management of the little support and assistance from members of the public.
The source added that the facility is equally facing the challenge of lack of decent toilets for inmates to ease themselves as most of the toilet facilities are in poor condition.
The young girls are not provided with sanitary pads for their monthly mensuration and sometimes they are asked to start thinking of the possibility of getting or buying such items themselves, the source further alleged.
How possible would that be for the inmates?
The source equally revealed that the inmates are sometimes given a bar of soap and detergent each for bathing and washing of their clothes that is expected to last them for a whole month.
“The children are not really happy with what is going on in their environment. They really need help so that their lives can be better and normal.
“The standard of the place is not like before. The standard of the place is a mess and nothing to write home about”, the source explained.
The source called for the intervention of the government and the authorities concerned to ensure that the condition of the inmates is addressed.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Echo Express reporter, the Coordinator of the orphanage, Mrs Gladys Maisule Apson, admitted that the orphanage is really facing a lot of challenges in terms of insufficient food items, detergent and toiletries, insufficient class rooms and challenges of staff remuneration among others.
Mrs Apson told our reporter that the support gotten from the few individuals that patronize the orphanage to support the orphans is not enough and the items given doesn’t usually go round unlike the previous years when there was massive financial and other support from outside and some individuals within.
Giving the detailed breakdown of the situation, the Coordinator explained that the children consume about 15 to 20 bags of grains on a monthly basis which sometimes, the school doesn’t even have.
According to her, no member of staff has ever taken any of the items given to the orphanage for their personal use because the items are not even adequate to Carter for the children.
She called on people to desist from accusing the management of diverting what is meant for the orphans because nothing of such has ever happened in the school especially during her tenure.
She stressed that whenever items are brought especially the non food items that cannot go round among the inmates, they are usually kept until another items of such kinds are donated before they are shared.
She however, denied the allegations that the inmates are sometimes asked to buy sanitary pads and toiletries, saying no student buys sanitary pad or toiletries from outside, insisting that people provide for them and the school share it to them on a monthly basis.
Mrs Apson also revealed the toilets are now in a good shape, saying the school authority recently renovated them with the exception of the dormitories and the multi-purpose Hall that some parts of the rooftop are leaking.
She called on spirited individuals and the general public not to relent in supporting the orphanage to ease the plight of the inmates, promising that the management will judiciously use any support that may come from any where in the name of the orphanage to the glory of God.
The Coordinator equally called on the Taraba State Government to intervene by possibly taking up the orphanage as its property.
