Justice Is a right for all humans

a) Name and Location: Mercy Internally Displaced Persons’ Camp Zonkwa, Kaduna State, Nigeria..

b) Population: The registered persons in the Mercy IDP camp were 3,455 persons

c) Villages Attacked: 8 villages were attacked

d) Villages Camped: 28 villages reported to the Mercy IDP camp.

e) The Numbers of the Killed ; 72 persons were killed.

f) Volunteer Team: This is an 8 Man team headed by Rev. Gambo Waziri the pastor in-charge of ECWA Gospel Zonkwa.

g) Body Responsible for the Camp: This is faith based IDP camp at ECWA Christian College of Education Zonkwa

Arrival and Introduction.

Our arrival to the venue was not too early due to weather and the distance of our team members that came down from Abuja to Mercy IDP Camp Zonkwa, Kaduna State, Nigeria on Saturday 29th August 2020. As the team finally arrived around 12:30-1pm, we had introduced ourselves to the managing team of Mercy IDP camp Zonkwa under the leadership of Rev. Gambo Waziri, the pastor in-charge of ECWA Gospel Zonkwa. We were warmly welcomed by the cleric alongside his team. He briefed us about the camp and how things runs in the camp and the challenges they are facing since from the time they have taken this to become a burden upon themselves.

Programme Covered at the Outreach

After we familiarized ourselves with the team, we moved on with what brought us to the camp as stipulated below:

Handed the Food Items: We handed the food items to the team after exploring the options of their distribution. This method seems pleasant to us because it is only the team that honestly knows how those items can be distributed or how it can be put to use.

Special Prayer: The special prayer was done by Sister Margaret to water the ground of the outreach. It was an enriching moment to communicate with God through this medium.

Song ministration: The song ministration was anchored by Mrs. Joy as she sang a contextual song in respect to what they are passing through. The excitement from their faces though in difficult moments was truly encouraging. That moment soften their hearts to listen to God’s Word through encouragement and exhortation.

Encouragement: The encouragement came from Romans 12:15 by Pastor Turu and charged them into knowing that they are not alone, but we all bear their burdens even though they were the ones that were attacked.

Exhortation: Pastor David gave the exhortation that centred on suffering from 1Peter 4:12-19. The exhortation would help them to assess reasons God allows suffering in the lives of the believers. This is a core topic to many of them that are traumatized and could not see reason how a loving God could allow His people to go through suffering in the hands of the unbelievers. And is also a first step in trauma healing as the victim is faced with reality of suffering and balanced with is God allowing it for so many reasons but with the sole aim of making His people becoming more like Christ.

Special Prayer: This is another special prayer done by Pastor Turu after all the messages have been passed across to the victims through songs, encouragement and exhortation.

Successes

Nehemiah Project Glorious Ministry International UK is saddled with the responsibility of advocacy, reconstruction, rehabilitation, education, reconciliation and prayer. Some of these could be achieved in the long-run, while some in the short-run. But with the protest done in London and the target set for Nigerian outreach, we can conclude that there is a great success. Though not all targeted were handled, but the ones we were able to do was done perfectly with the strength that the Lord almighty has given us. It was indeed a privilege to put a smile to the faces of those passing through difficult moments of persecution for their faith.

Needs

Mercy IDP camp has several needs which only few pressing needs are going to be projected here. Even with the pressing needs at hands, the estimation of them was not arrived yet, but only probable estimation could be attainable. These include:

1. Reconstruction: A lot of the victims have lost their homes and would need the houses to be reconstructed for them or building materials to be provided for them to rebuild their houses themselves.

2. Medical Bills: Mercy IDP camp has accumulated a lot of medical bills on debt due to treatments through surgeries and the medication for the victims. The responsibility to shoulder these bills is not on the government but on IDP camp management. Therefore, they need a helping hand to clear the bills they owe and also respond to those that need urgent surgery and medication that are yet to get treatment.

3. Trauma Healing: So many of them are traumatized because of their experiences with the killing of either relations or they themselves narrowly escaped death. The pictures of such brutality could be hunting the victims daily or occasionally, and they need professional counseling on how to get through such trauma. This will demand time, experts and materials to carry out the trauma healing successfully.

4. Empowerment: Majority of the victims lost their livelihood and life has somehow come to a standstill. There is need to empower them to get out of such situation no matter how meager the amount would be.