WHO WE ARE
The Centre for Caring, Empowerment and Peace Initiatives (CCEPI) is a non-political, strictly humanitarian, tax-exempt, non-profit organisation. It was registered in Nigeria in 2011. The organisation purpose is charitable and educational support which include: to aid persons who are sick, hungry, homeless, refugees, displaced, poor, physically challenged, traumatised, widows, orphans, depressed; or victims of disasters, human rights abuses or civil rights abuses; to profile the most vulnerable for purposes of efficient delivery of aid to them; and to provide direct aid or refer aid by other organisations and professionals for those persons.
The idea to start Centre for Caring, Empowerment and Peace Initiatives (CCEPI) as an organisation developed in 1989 by Dr. Rebecca Samuel Dali. The brief history and development of CCEPI is related with the three key words in CCEPI, Caring, Empowerment, and Peace.
CARING
CCEPI has been caring for:
● Orphans, orphans whose parents have been killed and have been abandoned to live on the streets, as well as many who live in homes supported only by a very poor mother who is unable to provide even the most basic needs for her children.
● Widows whose husbands have been slaughtered, shot, cut into pieces, hacked to death or burnt alive.
● Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the millions from Nigeria, mostly women, and children
● Refugees; CCEPI went to Cameroon and help Nigerian refugees in Minawa’o camp.
Others who are very sick People Living with HIV/AIDS, many of whom are dying because of lack of food and medicine who also suffer from the stigma and discrimination of having HIV/AID.
EMPOWERMENT
CCEPI Team has empowered a multitude of women through CCEPI since 1989 by:
● Organizing poverty-stricken women into groups of 10 to teach them skills that she learned from her mother and other Christian organizations.
● Broke down the skills into teachings that could be quickly and easily learned by the small groups,
● Skills included handcrafts, caterings, sewing, knitting, beads making, necklaces& earrings, tie-dye, batik, and cosmetology
● Products made were sold to elevate the women from poverty and allow them to pay for education for their children
CARING FOR WIDOWS
CCEPI coordinates meetings and teaches the importance of living in peace through:
● Fostering cooperation between over 500 Christians and 380 Muslims in crisis-prone areas in 2001-2011 Bukuru and Jos, In 2004 Shedam, Yelwa, where Christians and Muslims have traditionally fought each other.
As the women came to see each other as co-suffering humans, they saw the need to stop their husbands and youth from violence and to live in peace.
● Prior to this, it was very hard to heal the trauma while seeing the opposite religion as enemies.
● CCEPI established Christian Muslim Dialogue & Peace Initiatives (CCMDPI)
CCEPI Operational Experience:
Delivering humanitarian services since 1989, Partner with National and International Organizations such as National Emergency Management Agency, UNHCR implementing Partner, Church of the Brethren, International Rescue Committees, Christian Aids Ministries etc.
Profiling and Assessing Persons of Concern and Persons with Specific Needs, Protection Monitoring, identification, documentation, caring for families of people killed by insurgents (recorded over 48,780 people killed see files). Providing shelter and livelihood to the Boko Haram escapees who are rejected by husbands, parents and mediate until their integration into families and communities. CCEPI is currently implementing programs in Food and Nutrition, Health, Shelter and care, Education, WASH, Child Protection, Women’s Protection and Empowerment, etc. CCEPI has been operational in the North-Eastern Nigeria, North Central, and Cameroon since 1989
CCEPI Specialization:
WHERE WE WORK
CCEPI Nigerian headquarters is in Michika, Adamawa State and the Business and Liaison office is in Jos Plateau State, Nigeria with branch offices in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe state. To ensure effective support for Nigerian refugees in Cameroun republic, the organization set up an office at Minawa’o refugees camp Cameroun Republic. The organization is registered in United State of America. The organization consists of Board of Trustee (BoT), Management staff/Administrative staff and field staff.
WHO WE HELP
Our primary purpose at CCEPI is to provide support and humanitarian aid to most vulnerable people (persons of concern) sick, hungry, homeless, refugees, displaced, poor, physically challenged, traumatized, widows, orphans, depressed; or victims of disasters, human rights abuses or civil rights abuses; women, street children, people released from abduction, survivor of SGBV & victims of domestic violence. From 1989 to date CCEPI has helped millions of people through its programme which include: protection, livelihood, Health, Shelter, Camp Coordination & Camp Management (CCCM), Education, Psychosocial Support (PSS), Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA), Cash-Based Intervention (CBI), Trauma healing, Agricultural Initiatives, Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH), Food and Nutrition, Non-Food Items Support, Peacebuilding and Re-integration.
OUR SUPPORTERS
Over the years CCEPI as an organization has received support from both internal and external donors, friends and partners. From its inception, CCEPI has partnered with the following organizations: NELA, Church of the Brethren (CoB), International Rescue Committee (IRC), Christian Aids Ministries (CAM), Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Tearfund, UK.
WHAT WE DO
PROTECTION
Protection is one of the core activities carried out by CCEPI, the organization is into child protection, Women protection and Empowerment (WPE), Data population, Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) vulnerability screening and protection monitoring. CCEPI is currently implementing a project on Protection Monitoring in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the North-Eastern states of Adamawa and Borno, Nigeria. The two states have borne the major brunt’s of the Boko Haram insurgency in North-East Nigeria, leading an unprecedented level of displacement within and outside Nigeria. Through this project, CCEPI has constantly monitored the situation of the persons of concern, identified (and still identifying) protection issues, addressing same directly or referring to other actors in the humanitarian field. Through protection monitoring, CCEPI has been able to address serious health issues, Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH), Livelihood, Education, Shelter, Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), among others.
LIVELIHOOD
CCEPI in partnership with Church of the Brethren and with funds donated by CCEPI Trustees, staff and others operates 4 livelihood and skill acquisition centres in Jos (Plateau State), Yola (Adamawa State), Michika (Adamawa State) and Wandali, Kwaya kusar (Borno State). The livelihood centres admitted and trained widows and orphans in tailoring, knitting, computer, different cosmetology, beats making etc All the graduates were each given start-up capital, some receive sewing machines, knitting machines, cash and computers, based on their area of training.
MENTAL HEALTH & PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT
CCEPI provide occupational and psychological support for victims of conflicts in the north-eastern Nigeria, the aimed at providing support for individuals is to enable them regain resilience. The organization carry out Mental Health & Psychosocial support and child development programme through back to school programme, I visit and learn, financial support, psychosocial support and advocacy for child right. Mental Health & Psychosocial Support and Child Development programme is vital support that helps people cope with emotional challenges they face from traumatic experiences such as losing one’s parents or not having access to basic necessities of life. The project through community volunteers support people to overcome such challenges through home and school visits.
TRAUMA HEALING
As a result of the terrible experiences faced by most of the widows and orphans, they were traumatized because most of them witnessed how Boko Haram killed their husband and some members of their families. CCEPI organizes trauma healing sessions in groups and on individual basis. Following the brutal and heinous acts witnessed by some of our Persons of Concern (POC), it has become imperative that they are led through the process of healing aimed at helping them to recover, thrive and take control of their destinies.
AGRICULTURE INITIATIVE
The organization has agricultural initiative scheme, whereby the persons of concern to it access support to promote their agricultural activities, CCEPI provide farm inputs to its beneficiaries these include: farming tools, seedlings, fertilizer and herbicides. The organization also train its PoC in fish farming, poultry and animal husbandry. Through this scheme CCEPI have empowered numerous household for self-resilience.
HEALTH SERVICES
CCEPI staff went around different host communities/camps to identify sick and malnourished children for treatment. Many children identified were given a balanced diet to enable them to grow and develop normally. CCEPI and its partners also liaised with hospitals, health centers, and dispensaries to donate medicine and medical equipment including HIV/AIDS to health centers in camps and communities with a high concentration of IDPs. CCEPI also referred many IDPs to health facilities for treatments and to access HIV antiviral Drugs after screening and filling of consent forms. CCEPI health team screen IDPs, do simple surgery and give drugs and refer patients. There was a total of 8,300 referrals from 2012 to date. CCEPI have a medical team who use their vacation to provide surgery, distribute free medicine and to help the Internally Displaced Persons and poorest of the poor.
WATER SANITATION & HYGIENE (WASH)
The CCEPI and her partner provided water and sanitation programs and training to IDPs and their host communities. The program addressed the issues of lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitary toilets, poor quality and water governance, poor garbage disposal and drainage systems in its catchment communities. Specifically, CCEPI provided training on personal hygiene, clean environment and mosquito control. In collaboration with its partners, CCEPI also provided clean water, latrines, treated mosquito nets, soaps etc. more than 50,000 IDPs households benefitted from this intervention.
SHELTER & CARE
Shelter support is also one of the activities CCEPI is into, in 2016 CCEPI in partnership Christian Aid Ministries (CAM) was able to build fifty (50) house to widows whose husbands was killed during boko haram insurgency in the north-eastern Nigeria and in 2017 CCEPI’s partnership with UNHCR, identified and distributed shelter materials to 500 vulnerable households of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) whose houses were destroyed by Boko Haram in Adamawa State, Nigeria. They were given shelter materials including bags of cement, woods for roofing, roofing sheets, nails, etc. They were also given some money to facilitate the renovation of their shelters.
CASH BASED INTERVENTION
CCEPI uses cash-Based Intervention to provide assistance to its Persons of concern, Cash and voucher helps in providing food, shelter, education, healthcare and livelihood support. In 2015 CCEPI in partnership with International Rescue Committee (IRC) was able to distribute over two Thousand (2000) Food vouchers worth sixty million naira (₦60,000.00) to internally displaced persons in Adamawa State, while in 2017 CCEPI in partnership with UNHCR was able to carry out CBI through Cash Plus Kind Modalities to over five hundred household in Hong local Government of Adamawa State, Nigeria. The Cash plus Material distributed in Hong, Nigeria Valued at eighty million naira (80,000.00). The Cash Based Intervention makes our persons of concern less likely to resort to harmful coping strategies such as sexual survival, child labour, forced/early marriage, child begging and hawking, family separation etc.
EDUCATION
CCEPI provide educational support for out of School Children, the educational programme aimed at providing scholarship to less privileged children in the society. The target groups for educational support are 0-5 year’s pre-primary school, 6-12 years primary school and 13-17 secondary school. CCEPI also advocate for the girl-child education in Nigeria. The programme was initiated due to the high numbers of out of school children in Nigeria and the ideology which discourage girl-child education.
VILLAGE SAVINGS & VILLAGE LOANS
From 2012 to 2017 CCEPI formed 85 Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) groups of amounting to 20-25 members mostly women. The members save together and take small loans from those savings. The activities of the group run in cycles of one year, after which the accumulated savings and the loan profits are distributed back to members. The purpose of a VSLA is to provide simple savings and loan facilities in a community that does not have easy access to formal financial services. CCEPI VSLA principles are more transparent, structured and democratic version of the informal savings groups mostly in Northeast Nigeria.
CAMP COORDINATION & CAMP MANAGEMENT
Centre for Caring, Empowerment and Peace Initiative (CCEPI) in partnership with United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) conducts Camp Management in various locations in Adamawa and Borno states, Nigeria. CCEPI’s CCCM monitors ensure equitable access to services and protection for displaced persons living in communal settings, to improve their quality of life and dignity during displacement, and advocate for solutions while preparing them for life after displacement. The CCCM unit supports field operations with tools, guidance and capacity building to coordinate and manage displaced populations effectively.
FOOD AND NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT
Food and Nutritional Support: Under this program, the aim was to promote access to food and nutrition to the Most Vulnerable People which include: Internally Displaced People (IDPs), Refugees, returnees, Orphans, Widows, and People living with HIV (PLHIV). CCEPI through its partnership with International Rescue Committee (IRC), Church of Brethren (CoB), and Christian Aid Ministries has reached more than five million people through its food and nutrition support programme
NON FOOD ITEMS
As a way of addressing the basic domestic needs of the most vulnerable persons of concern in Camps and local communities, CCEPI distributes Non-food Items (NFIs). CCEPI does this by first, assessing the needs of individuals and households and thereafter profiling them based on their particular needs. In 2014/2015 CCEPI was able to carry this activities in partnership IRC, NEMA and CoB, in 2016 CCEPI was able reach more than two thousand households in north-eastern Nigeria through its partnership Christian Aid Ministries and In 2017, CCEPI in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), distributed NFIs to more than 1400 households.
RE-INTEGRATION
CCEPI has a programme on family reunification & re-integration, aimed at re-unifying & re-integrating victims of Boko Haram abduction back to their families and communities by reaching forth to the families and communities of these individuals whose families and communities have rejected, neglected and even stigmatized them due to their contact with Boko Haram either through abduction or forced marriages. CCEPI meets the community leaders to negotiate for shelter, food, and general livelihood.
AGRICULTURE INITIATIVES
The organization has an agricultural initiative scheme, whereby the persons of concern to it access support to promote their agricultural activities, CCEPI provide farm inputs to its beneficiaries these include: farming tools, seedlings, fertilizer, and herbicides. The organization also train its PoC in fish farming, poultry and animal husbandry. Through this scheme, CCEPI has empowered numerous household for self-resilience.
VILLAGE SAVINGS & LOAN ASSOCIATION (VSLA)
From 2012 to 2017 CCEPI formed 85 Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) groups of amounting to 20-25 members mostly women. The members save together and take small loans from those savings. The activities of the group run in cycles of one year, after which the accumulated savings and the loan profits are distributed back to members. The purpose of a VSLA is to provide simple savings and loan facilities in a community that does not have easy access to formal financial services. CCEPI VSLA principles are more transparent, structured and democratic version of the informal savings groups mostly in Northeast Nigeria,
WOMEN PROTECTION AND EMPOWERMENT (WPE)
CCEPI staff (trainer) during the Identification of Chemicals on how to make the Shampoo and Liquid Soap. Refilling of the Shampoo & liquid soap widows and survival are happy for skills and gift of items. Dignity kits were also distributed to the girls who suffered a lot with items such as; Towel, Laundry soap, Toilet soap, Sanitary towel, Wrapper, Vaseline, Toothpaste and toothbrush, comb, Shaving stick, touch light, Hijab, and Scarf.
THURSDAYS IN BLACK
Since Dr. Fulata Lusungu Moyo, Programme Executive of Just Community Of Women and Men, World Council of Churches made CCEPIto be one of the advocate Wear black on Thursdays. Wear a pin to declare you are part of the global movement resisting attitudes and practices that permit rape and violence. Show your respect for women who are resilient in the face of injustice and violence. Encourage others to join you. Often black has been used with negative racial connotations. In Nigeria. CCEPI have been wearing Black on Thursdays to stand, to speak out against violence, to ensure that women and men, boys and girls, are safe from rape and violence in homes, schools, work, streets – in all places in our societies. In every country, gender-based violence is a tragic reality. This violence is frequently hidden, and victims are often silent, fearing stigma and further violence. this campaign Black is used as a color of resistance and resilience.
Thursdays in Black grew out of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women (1988-1998), in which the stories of rape as a weapon of war, gender injustice, abuse, violence, and many tragedies that grow outward from such violence became all the more visible. But what also became visible was women’s resilience, agency and personal efforts to resist such violations.
PEACE INITIATIVES
CCEPI established and trained Protection Action/ Peace Action Groups (PAG) in each community which are able to identify, mitigate and respond to basic needs (food, shelter, Risk, health, agric etc), in their own environment and to call attention of CCEPI monitors and volunteers for further action. They help CCEPI staff identify the most at risk IDPs and host communities in need of urgent protection such as hunger, violence etc and help in mobilizing the most vulnerable people to access services. They should also identity any violation of human rights, rape, serious health conditions, malnourish children. They should also give situational reports on school, health services and concerns such as lack of water, school, food etc in the community. They should be vigilant and coordinate peaceful co-existences among people in their communities. Regular reporting and meeting with CCEPI I volunteers. They should maintain peace and report any strange person to CCEPI or government bodies on the ground and other relevant humanitarian agencies for intervention and assistance. PAG members should Assist in the conducting of focus group discussions and other assessments