By Felicia Imohimi

Tungan Ashere Community in the FCT has called for urgent government intervention through the provision of health facilities, electricity, schools, and access roads to alleviate the sufferings of residents.

The community made the appeal when the Board of Directors of ActionAid Nigeria paid an inspection visit to the area in Abuja.

It was part of its commitment to amplifying citizens voices and promoting responsive, people-centred governance.

The Village Head, Mr Sani Yakubu, lamented that several lives, especially those of pregnant women, had been lost due to the absence of healthcare services in the community.

“I almost lost my wife last week Monday due to ill health. Her condition was critical before I got to Zuba, which is the closest health facility to our village. This is made worse by the poor state of the access road,” he said.

Yakubu noted that many women in the community resort to the use of herbs and traditional birth attendants due to the unavailability of qualified medical personnel.

He also described the education infrastructure in the community as inadequate, saying the existing block of three classrooms was shared by pupils from Primary 1 to 6.

“Primary 1 and 2 share a classroom, 3 and 4 share one, and so do 5 and 6. When one set is receiving lessons, the other has to wait to avoid disruption,” he said.

Yakubu commended ActionAid for empowering women through agricultural support and for providing a solar-powered ICT centre to boost youth and children’s digital learning.

He said the ICT centre, established with support from the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), had become a training hub for neighbouring communities.

“It is through ActionAid’s intervention that we learnt how to engage and hold government and the area council accountable. This led to the establishment of the classroom block,” he said.

Also speaking, Mrs Hafsat Saidu, Assistant Women Leader of Shekwodiza Women Cooperative, appealed for the expansion of the school to accommodate secondary education.

She called on the government to complete the abandoned electricity and road projects in the area, adding that such interventions would ease access to markets and reduce post-harvest losses among women farmers.

Earlier, ActionAid Nigeria’s Deputy Country Director, Mrs Suwaiba Dankabo, said the organisation’s support for Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) and skills training had improved women’s income and decision-making power.

“These platforms have enhanced women’s access to credit, boosted their confidence, and enabled them to start and manage small businesses,” she said.

Dankabo said ActionAid began work in the community in 2002 in partnership with the Society for Community Development (SCD).

She said that in 2017, the organisation adopted the Participatory Review and Reflection Process (PRRP) to reveal barriers children and youths faced in accessing the internet for learning.

She said this gave rise to the Breaking Digital Barriers initiative, which led to the establishment of the ICT centre.

“In 2018, two blocks of classrooms were built following community-led advocacy to the Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) and social media engagement by the traditional leader after a digital rights training.

“This intervention reduced the number of out-of-school children by 80 per cent and led to a 90 per cent increase in girl-child enrolment,” she added. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Tosin Kolade