•••IDPs Complain of Diversion of Donated Funds, Materials
By Kamsi Anayo
No fewer than five women from the flooded communities camp at the Crowther Memorial Primary School Camp, Onitsha, Anambra State, have delivered babies.
Our correspondent, who visited the camp on Tuesday, gathered that the women were immediately taken to the General Hospital, Onitsha for proper medication.
Speaking to our correspondent at the camp, the camp supervisor, Theresa Okoye, said many groups and individuals have visited the camp with food items and relief materials.
Okoye said that the inmates, numbering about 1,800, came from the 17 different communities of the Anambra West Local Government Area, including Nzam, Ukwala, Inoma, and Owele, among others.
This is just as the inmates complain that the relief materials donated to them do not get to them, who are supposed to be the target beneficiaries.
They lamented that they use the little money with themselves to buy soaps and other groceries for their laundry needs when a lot of such items were brought to the camp.
They identified their major problem in the camp as a lack of sleeping materials such as mattresses, as many of them sleep on bare floors and in the open.
They said, “We appeal to the government, groups, and individuals visiting the camp to share the relief materials for all the refugees directly rather than handing them over to particular persons.
“The relief materials don’t get to us. We use our money to buy soaps and tubes of toothpaste, whereas all these items were brought by the donors. The cash the donors bring always ends up in a few people’s pockets, and it is not a good idea.
“We need cash which will help us rebuild our lives to enable us to start life afresh when we go back home when the flood recedes.
“All of us here are not with our complete families. Some of our children and wives are in different camps depending on the area you find yourself. We found ourselves here, but some of our family members found themselves somewhere else. It is after the flood that we will reunite ourselves.”