Image Text:

NEW DIRECTION: Ariyo (right) with Richard Taylor

A CHARITY that helps to prevent the abuse of African children in the UK is to set up a branch in Nigeria later this year.

Modupe Debbie Ariyo, head of Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (AFRUCA) is planning for the new organisation to be up and running by December.

“AFRUCA Foundation Nigeria is going to replicate what we do here in the UK,” she said during a recent event to celebrate AFRUCA’s tenth anniversary.

Ariyo, who was recently given an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in recognition of her fight against child abuse added: “The idea of AFRUCA Foundation Nigeria is to have a platform to do a number of things such as campaign for legal changes to be made in child protection, and safeguarding children so we can have less children who are victims of different forms of abuse.”

Richard Taylor, father of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor, supported Ariyo’s idea.

“There’s a lot of work to do in Nigeria because those issues are still prevalent there, especially the rural areas” he said.