By Hassan Muaz
A lucky victim of 2015 Bannez Plaza Abuja, bomb blast and Founder, Splendour Child Empowerment Foundation, Splendour Joe-King, said her expeience during the fatal explosion spurred her into advocacy on dangers of terrorism on children.
Young Joe-King, made this revealation Sunday when she featured at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
Asked what spurred her into establishing a foundation at age nine, Joe-King replied that at a young age in her life, she escaped a bomb blast at Banex Plaza in Abuja in 2015.
According to her, the development led her to write a book on the effects of terrorism on children, saying that the book was meant to educate children and youths on the dangers of terrorism.
“ My book: `The Effects of Terrorism on Children’, which I wrote at age nine is helping in educating children on the dangers and effects of terrorism and the reasons why they should not go into it.
“They need to understand this so that they will not join all these terrorist groups and not become nuisance to society tomorrow.
“Yes, I have been able to proffer solutions for children not to involve themselves in terrorism because obviously if they involve themselves in terrorism it will be extremely bad for their future.
“It is also bad for the society at large.’’
Joe-King lamented that society had become so engrossed in negativity and following negative trends that campaigns issues such as her peace project hardly get online followership.
Following this, she pledged her Foundation would take up issues relating to health and education needs of less-privileged kids in the country.
Joe-King, who is also a child’s rights activist, asserted that for any society to achieve its developmental goals, it must take care of the education and health needs of the populace, especially children.
“My foundation is majorly to cater for children between the ages of zero to 18 years and my main focus is health and education.
“There are other areas my foundation looks into but I believe that this two are of utmost importance.
“Why education: — because according to Nelson Mandela, education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change our world.
“You know if children are educated, they will become better in future and society will reap the benefits.
“The children will forge ahead and see that their country becomes great.
“I hate hearing news that a child, due to ignorance is not able to get to hospital to get treated when such need arises.’’
The young activist said that a lack of visibility to her social media handles had been a challenge in her bid to project her campaign.
