TheCable

The Israeli embassy in Nigeria has offered academic scholarship to some of the children in internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Adamawa state.

Tony Obiechina, the embassy’s senior media and political officer, disclosed this in a statement issued on Wednesday.

He said the scholarship will be extended to the 225 kids participating in the ongoing football competition in the camp.

Obiechina said the football competition, which started last week, was organised by the embassy in honour of Israel’s national day.

He added that the Rotary club of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola, the state capital, is also involved in the competition.

“This initiative of Guy Feldman, the ambassador of Israel to Nigeria, was put together to replace Israel’s national day reception in Nigeria scheduled for this week,” he said.

“The tournament aimed at bringing hope to millions of IDP children in the north-east region, will end will end on Thursday 4th of May 2017. The efforts and funds will instead be channelled to drawing international attention to the plight of the kids in IDPs camps.”

Obiechina said Kanu Nwankwo, a  football legend, and Nollywood Stars, Desmond Elliot and Funke Akindele, were active supporters and promoters of the initiative.

“Simultaneously, the university will be running a competition between its students using video clip footages from the tournament. The winning clip will be pushed through all Israeli embassies to major international media outlets in order to convey this message of hope and resilience to the international community,” he said.

“At the end of the tournament all the kids will receive full scholarships for one academic year.”