A Non Governmental Organization (NGO) said it is finding it difficult to feed the more than 200 abandoned children in its rehabilitation center at Esit Eket, Akwa Ibom, due to high food prices.
The President of the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN), Mr Sam Ikpe-Itauma, said the abandoned children were rescued from the streets and kept at the center where they were fed.
Ikpe-Itauma told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at Eket in Akwa Ibom that they now faced threats of hunger and starvation due to rising food prices.
He blamed the plight of the children on the activities of some churches that branded the children as witches in a bid to extort money from their parents.
Ikpe-Ituama explained that they did this in the guise of performing deliverance on them, adding that the phenomenon had led to increasing number of abandoned children in Akwa Ibom.
He said that due to the limited resources available to the NGO, the quantity of food purchased was grossly inadequate.
``We spend N100,000 weekly to purchase food, but since the food crisis started the quantity of food we buy with the money does not last up to one week. This has presented a big challenge to us at the center,'' he said.
Ikpe-Itauma appealed to the government, philanthropists and corporate organizations to come to the aid of the children and relieve the NGO of the burden of providing food, shelter and education for them.
He urged the Federal Government to find a lasting solution to the food crisis, which he said had affected the poor and less privileged persons in the society. He said the abandoned children provided a steady source of trafficked children and made Akwa Ibom the state with the highest number of trafficked children in the country.
He called on the government to regulate the activities of churches to sanction, proscribe, or prosecute those that stigmatised children.
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