DISTRIBUTION OF 10KG, 10,000 BAGS OF RICE PALLIATIVE IN ANAMBRA STATE BY ALIKO DANGOTE FOUNDATION IN PARTNERSHIP WITH JUSTICE, DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE CARITAS, JDPC, AWKA FOR NATIONAL FOOD INTERVENTION PROGRAMME, 2024
PROJECT GOAL
In line with our core mandate which is feeding the hungry and providing for the needy, we keyed into the NATIONAL FOOD INTERVENTION PROGRAMME initiated by the ALIKO DANGOTE FOUNDATION, in order to reach out to 10,000 beneficiaries across the 181 communities in Anambra state.
ACTIVITIES
In the first week of May, 2024, the project team sat for a planning meeting to design the methodology and sharing formula for the distribution. We adopted different strategies in order to mitigate against wastage or stampede during the sharing period.
Consequently, we invited the police and bouncers in all our outings and employed the services of community leaders, women leaders, youth leaders, religious leaders and various stakeholders in the mapping out of the lists of the beneficiaries: stating names, locations and phone numbers of beneficiaries from each community. The lists were sent to us one week before local governments were visited and were used at the point of distribution for verification purpose.
The distribution of the 10kg bags of rice commenced at Awka north and Awka south local governments respectively with the presence of the local government coordinators and some president generals of different communities.
More interestingly, was the observance of social inclusivity of the programme, the presence of various non-indigenes who are residents as beneficiaries was also a major highlight of the activities. We had some women from different ethnic nationality such as Kogi, Sokoto, Kaduna, Osun, Delta and Edo who benefited from the programme and expressed their deep gratitude to ALIKO DANGOTE FOUNDATION.
The project team visited the following 21 local government areas of Anambra state:
AGUATA, ANAOCHA, AYAMELUM, AWKA NORTH, AWKA SOUTH, ANAMBRA EAST, ANAMBRA WEST, DUNUKOFIA,EKWUSIGO, IDEMILI NORTH, IDEMILI SOUTH, IHIALA, NJIKOKA, NNEWI NORTH, NNEWI SOUTH, OGBARU, ONITSHA NORTH, ONITSHA SOUTH, ORUMBA NORTH, ORUMBA SOUTH AND OYI.
In each of these local government areas, the coordinators responsible for distributing the rice to the beneficiaries in the 181 communities were all present with their shuttle buses to convey the bags of rice to the communities.
At each time of distribution, the truck first reports to the way house for loading of 1,500 or 1,000 bags of 10 kg rice depending on the time of the day, after which the truck moves to the local government areas for offloading and distribution.
OUTCOMES
- Reduction of hunger in local communities.
- Improved sense of hope for the poor in our communities.
- Reduction of malnutrition due to shortage of food.
PROJECT INDICATORS
- 10,000 beneficiaries received rice palliative
- 8,982 female and 1,018 male.
- 181 communities benefited.
- 21 local governments visited.
CHALLENGES
- In some cases due to the rainfall, our activities were delayed by change of time.
- In one occasion, we had late arrival at the venue due to traffic congestion and we had to wait for the coordinators and their buses to arrive before we commenced sharing.
LESSON LEARNT
There were no stampeding and recording of death during the distribution because we had proper planning and execution.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- According to popular demand and based on empirical evidences gathered during the sharing process, we recommend that this exercise be carried out annually in order to promote zero hunger for humanity.
- Going forward, we also advise that fertilizers should also be added to the sharing item in order ensure sustainability of food production in our local communities.
