Physical and Social Living Conditions of School-Aged Children in Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs’) Camps in Plateau State

Abstract

The study investigated the physical and social living conditions of school-aged children in IDPs’ camps in Plateau State, Nigeria. Specifically, it determined socioeconomic/demographic characteristics of the children; their physical and social living conditions. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. The population comprised 948 6-12year-old children in the two IDPs’ camps in Plateau State. A random sample of 50 percent of the population (474) was selected. Questionnaire was used for data collection. Frequencies and percentages were used for data analysis. Findings on socio-economic characteristics of the children showed that there were more male children (55.30%) than female children (44.70%), and up to 85.90% of them had less than

₦10,000 as their household monthly income. The physical living conditions of the children showed that more than half (51.30%) of them lived in small-sized dwellings, 65.40 percent had inadequate room/tent ventilation and 81.40 percent of the children had 6-10 persons living in a room. There were no nets on the children’s dwelling doors and a greater percentage (60.50%) of the children had an average number of 4-6 clothes. Furthermore, the main source of water was well water (85.40%) and firewood (94.90%) was the main type of fuel for cooking. Findings on social living conditions of the children showed that majority of them lived near some basic social amenities such as health centers (82.30%), schools (99.20%) and markets (83.30%). In addition, a good number (77.40%) of the children obtained formal education. It was recommended that government at different levels should equip IDPs’ camps with adequate facilities to enable satisfactory conditions of hygiene and access to social amenities.