Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF), one of Nigeria’s leading philanthropic organizations, has initiated the disbursement of N100,000 and Dignity Packs to Nigerian returnees from Sudan.
The funds and Dignity Packs were distributed to evacuees upon arrival at the Abuja airport yesterday, regardless of the number of individuals involved.
Maryam Buhari-Shehu, a representative of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, stated that the Board of Trustees of the Foundation has resolved to participate fully in the evacuation and resettlement of the thousands of Nigerians stranded in Sudan.
She revealed that a total of 362 returnees, including children, were registered for the exercise, with 350 receiving support on the first day.
The intervention was in collaboration with the Federal Government through its agency, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), and Air Peace to provide relief to the returnees. Mrs. Buhari-Shehu, who represented the Managing Director of the ADF, Zouera Youssoufou, noted that the ADF will continue to support the government in its humanitarian efforts.
One of the beneficiaries of the ADF’s donation, Yusuf Bulama, expressed his gratitude to Allah for bringing them back home safely and thanked Aliko Dangote for the enormous intervention through the Aliko Dangote Foundation.
“My message to Dangote is to pray that Allah continues to help him and support his numerous businesses,” he said.
Another beneficiary, Muneerah Abdul, described the N100,000 donation as a huge sum and prayed that Allah would continue to bless Alhaji Aliko Dangote.
It is worth noting that the Aliko Dangote Foundation supported the Nigerian government with logistics support for Nigerian volunteer health workers who assisted in the containment efforts of the Ebola virus in Liberia and Sierra Leone upon their return to the country in 2015.
Additionally, during the recent Covid pandemic, the ADF supported the return of Nigerians from India and Dubai during the outbreak of the pandemic with specially chartered flights and Covid testing and quarantining when they arrived back in Nigeria.
Since 2011, the ADF has supported several thousand internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, and Abuja, with total spending of over 25 billion naira in the provision of food, shelter, and health services.
