Sign the Change.org Petition
About Nigerian Restoration Initiative
Africa Arise International is announcing the kickoff of a campaign to raise domestic and international awareness of the plight of Nigeria’s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), to secure justice by safely restoring these victims back to their rightful homes, churches and mosques, schools, farms and places of work.
International watchdogs estimate Nigeria is currently home to 3.6 million men, women, and children who have been violently displaced from their homes by radical Islamic groups including Boko Haram and Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP).
Nigerian Restoration Initiative
Nigerian Restoration Initiative
NIGERIA
The current Nigerian government deserves our empathy at this point in time, as they seek solutions for this severe humanitarian crisis they have inherited, which cannot be ignored.
Unimaginable hardship and suffering — due to ongoing insurgency, daily reality of fear, loss and uncertainty — weighs heavily on internally displaced victims and those at risk of internal displacement.
Let us all stand in solidarity with Nigeria and her internally displaced people during this difficult time, and commit to supporting efforts to restore peace, stability and hope for a brighter future.
An Opportunity
For The New
President
In 2016, Nigeria was officially branded the most dangerous place on Earth to be a Christian during the often tyrannical Buhari regime. With a recent democratic change in government, the world can help roll back religious repression in Nigeria.
The new Nigerian administration now has the golden opportunity to affirm its legitimacy, credibility, and respect at home and abroad by immediately taking bold measures to successfully restore these people to their rightful homes, in peace.
Cynically, the prior Nigerian administration spun these IDPs as “homeless vagrants” and their camps as “rural communities,” and even sought to destroy these camps, in an attempt to deflect public attention from the vast scope of this growing crisis. In truth, these people are not stuck in these conditions due to personal mistakes or character flaws. Many are well-educated and professional and were successful in life before their brutal eviction. They are not “homeless.” They do have homes -- homes that were violently ripped away, homes they long to return to.
NIGERIA
IDPs
Nigeria’s IDPs deserve a voice. They deserve justice. Towards this end, we hereby call on the Nigerian government to:
Acknowledge the full scope and true causes of Nigeria’s current IDP crisis.
Formally recognize and undertake a census of “informal” IDP encampments across the nation, provide direct relief, and call on the UN and other aid groups to do the same.
Restore occupied lands to IDPs, and resettle them back home.
Assure reconstruction or restitution of destroyed properties.
Safeguard the religious freedoms of all Nigerians and protect against further attacks.
Provide college tuition and other assistance to youth born displaced.
What Africa Arise
Is Doing To Help
To drive these points, Africa Arise International is embarking on a multi-faceted campaign which includes:
Continuing to build and staff schools in the many “unofficial” IDP camps, providing free, high-quality education to displaced children, and rallying support for this effort.
Collecting and providing a platform for IDPs to tell their personal stories, through an effort called My Voice Matters.
Staging events and speaking engagements, and otherwise pursuing media exposure in Nigeria and the USA, to shine a light on this situation.
Producing a full-length documentary film to tell the world about the plight of Nigeria’s IDPs.
Lobbying Nigerian, US, and UN officials to recognize, aid, and restore the IDPs.
Engaging in a vigorous social media campaign to garner widespread awareness and support.
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