MRS. PEACE ISRAEL'S EMPOWERMENT
"CHANGING LIVES, GIVING HOPE, IMPACTING HAPPINESS"
Location: Maiadiko in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.
Date: October 10th, 2022
One heavy burden every mother bears is that of catering for her children. It even becomes heavier when she does so with little or no assistance from the father of her children.
This is the story of Mrs. Peace Israel.
Her burden was heavy but Universal Peace and Violence Amelioration Centre (UPVAC) in conjunction with Algier12 Properties Ltd took it all away.
She was going through hard times. They didn't have enough food; they didn't have enough of anything.
"Most nights, I went to bed hungry. I would cry myself to sleep after I had shared the little quantity of food available between my four children," she told UPVAC humanitarian team, rubbing her eyes to wade off the tears trapped in them.
Michael, Happy, Loise and James are the children of Mrs Peace Israel whom she bore to Mr Daniel Israel.
The couple were living peacefully in Jos, Nigeria until things began to go sour. Mrs Peace Israel's partner, Mr Daniel Israel, who worked as a mason with a meagre income took to alcoholism and promiscuity when he could not get more jobs, leaving the responsibility of providing for his family on the shoulders of Mrs Peace alone.
When she complained, she was met with physical assaults. Her partner hit her several times even in the presence of their children. With every misunderstanding came torturous beatings.
Saddled with the burden of providing for every member of her family, she took several cleaning jobs so as to make ends meet. At some point, she had to concentrate on providing for the children alone as she no longer saw reasons to feed a deadbeat father and an abusive husband. For the sake of the children, she pleaded with her partner to turn a new leaf. However, her pleas fell on deaf ears.
In 2017 due to untold hardship, they had to relocate to Mr Daniel's village in Kafanchan, Kaduna State. There, things got worse as it was not a commercial area. Mrs Peace tried several businesses that failed eventually because she had to use most of her capital to sustain the family. After a very hard time in the village with no support, she was advised by her partner’s sister to move back to Jos and find different menial jobs so as to care for her family.
They moved back to Jos some months later. Mr. Daniel felt the need to go to Kano in search of greener pastures and never returned till date. He communicated with them for a few months and then the calls stopped coming altogether. Mr Daniel has not been heard from all the while. His family members do not seem to know his way about either and his numbers have been unreachable.
Mrs Peace revealed that her children have been out of school since 2018 due to poverty. They looked visibly malnourished as she could barely afford one meal a day. She was tightly wrapped up in the mess that her predicament has made of her.
Her suffering intensified till she could no longer afford to pay house rent. She had to move into an uncompleted building with her four children. There, she lived with her children until UPVAC came in contact with her.
After interviewing her, assessing and verifying her story, UPVAC in collaboration with Algiers12 Properties Ltd intervened in her situation.
We have sent the children back to school on scholarships. On 7th October, 2022 our team formally presented the children, who were dressed in their new school uniforms, to the school authority. We also led Mrs Peace and her children to a conducive shelter, their new home which we provided for them. The mother of four was enrolled in a skills acquisition training, and upon completion, was empowered with startup packs and a business grant. We have empowered her to start a sustainable business that will assist her in taking proper care of herself and her children.
Supplies such as foodstuffs and household items such as mattresses, pillows, blankets, bedsheets, curtains, water containers, buckets, pots, plates, spoons, rechargeable lamps and other basic necessities were made available to her.
Her joy knew no bounds as the curtain of darkness was rolled away, ushering her into beautiful rays of light.
Universal Peace and Violence Amelioration Centre - UPVAC remains actively committed to promoting and demonstrating a high sense of socio-economic responsibility, while carrying out humanitarian outreaches, engaging in peace and violence amelioration activities globally and enhancing public safety in collaboration with various local, national and international agencies.
