Report by: Rev. Fr. Titus Armon
Coordinator, Migrants and Refugees Unit, Ogoja Diocese
The September 2024 UNHCR published data on registered Camerounian refugees in Nigeria puts the number at a staggering 69,475. Of these, over 45,000 are in Cross River State, with children between the ages of 0 to 17 making up 35,987.
The Catholic Diocese of Ogoja plays host to three of the biggest refugee settlements in Cross River State, namely: Adagom 1, Okende and Adagom 3.
Faced daily with the stark reality of the difficult plight of refugees, the Migrants and Refugees Unit of the Diocese has over the last one year continually made efforts to provide pastoral, humanitarian and social support for this vulnerable group. Led by the Bishop, Most Rev. Donatus Edet Akpan, the Church has sought to bring much-needed relief, restore the hope and preserve the fundamental human dignity of these our disadvantaged brothers and sisters.
Focusing on children in April 2025, the Unit collaborated with the Congregational Sisters of the Missionaries of Love and Mercy, and with the support funding from the St. Patrick’s Missionary Society, Nigeria, Divine Mercy Prayer Family and the Comfort foundation, organized and carried out an Easter children’s event.
The event featured a “Back-to-School Spark” program, which was developed and piloted by the Missionaries of Love and Mercy and aimed at rekindling the desire for educational pursuit in the refugee children of Adagom 1 settlement. Climax of the event was an Easter celebration featuring awards to some specially talented children, as well as the distribution of food, clothing and cash envelopes to various participants and families. About 300 children participated in the program.
Through further support of the Divine Mercy Prayer Family on the event of the celebration of the Divine Mercy Sunday, the Migrants and Refugees Unit
carried out corporal works of mercy such as feeding and clothing the needy through cash donations to 30 families identified with special needs. In their great joy the benficiaries expressed thanks for the love and concern of the Church, while praying for continuous such assistance. They also expressed desire and hope for a decent place of worship, as well as human capacity-development programs for empowerment, self-reliance and -sustenance.
