In line with the directives of the United Nations, the task force would be capitalising on the involvement of youths to drive and implement the distribution.
The COVID-19 Task Force of Victims Support Fund has begun the distribution of food items to poor and vulnerable Nigerians to cushion the effect of the lockdown occasioned by the spread of Coronavirus in the country.
According to the task force, N1bn would be used to provide relief materials to 300,000 households with two million Nigerians in Abuja, Lagos, Ogun, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba.
In line with the directives of the United Nations, the task force would be capitalising on the involvement of youths to drive and implement the distribution.
Medical equipment like respirators, face masks, hand sanitisers and donated personal protective equipment would also be purchased and donated to health workers.
Speaking during the distribution of the goods, Chairperson of the VSF COVID-19 Task Force, Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, stated that without effective distribution of palliatives, people won’t obey the lockdown order of the government.
She said, “We at VSF are increasingly worried about how we can provide support for the state government to efficiently implement the lockdown order because we are concerned about the community transmission.
“We decided to target some frontline Covid-19 states and deploy our resources to assist government and citizens coping with the lockdown.
“If people are hungry, they will not stay at home, they will go out and it will be hard to flatten the curve.
“We started with Abuja last week where we donated to 4,910 households with at least six family members each, then moved to Borno where we gave out palliatives to 6,137 households. We went to Yobe and donated to 3,828 households.
“From Yobe, we moved on to Adamawa and from there to Taraba, then to Ogun State and we arrived in Lagos.”
She noted that the distribution of relief materials is a risky assignment as the team would be visiting states that have the highest cases of Coronavirus in Nigeria.