Tag Archives: children

Nigeria

Education Must Continue Initiative is changing the statistics

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Logo for EMCI

Logo for EMCI

Education for children in Northeast Nigeria has suffered immensely. Here is a description of the problems from an article in International Business Times.

Destroying Nigeria’s Children – Before Boko Haram launched its brutal insurgency in northeast Nigeria six years ago, the region recorded the lowest school enrollment rate in the country, especially for girls, as well as the lowest level of literacy and highest incidence of poverty. The insurgency has exacerbated the situation. Over half a million children in northeast Nigeria have had to flee to safety in the past five months, bringing the total number of displaced children in the conflict-torn region to 1.4 million, the United Nations said in September. More than 208,000 of them are not in school.

But the NGO, Education Must Continue Initiative, refuses to let these statistics stand. They are working hard to get the children back in schools. Here are some pictures(by Jay Wittmeyer and Roy Winter) from a recent visit to one of their temporary school in Yola.

Makeshift classrooms

Makeshift classrooms

Teachers at the Yola temporary school

Teachers at the Yola temporary school

School in a tent donated by Unicef

School in a tent donated by Unicef

More tentative classes

More temporary classes

Devotional

Mary: Motherhood

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Luke 2:33-35

Question for Reflection:
How is it that children teach their elders about life? What have you learned through the eyes of a child?

Prayer for the day:
God, the promise of a new baby is one of your signs of hope in this world. But that hope is challenged daily, sometimes through deep sorrow like what we feel for the children and families of Newtown, Connecticut. Thank you for sharing in our grief. Grant us peace and courage through the rising and the falling of our daily living. We, like Mary, covet your blessing.  With expectation we pray, amen.

~ Jonathan Shively, executive director, Congregational Life Ministries

Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year’s Advent Devotional written by Walt Wiltschek, campus pastor of Manchester University. (Available from Brethren Press in print and E-Book formats) Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, Walt’s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on this blog.