Amange Foundation has a long history of schemes and projects initiated at different timelines by her founder, Nimi Barigha-Amange. These schemes were introduced as part of Amange's community development efforts and in response to palpable needs of his immediate community, Nembe in Bayelsa States, Nigeria. These schemes were done without a registered umbrella body but were directly supervised by Nimi Barigha-Amange's lieutenants/attendants. However, the following schemes were initiated in these years:
2002:
Nimi Barigha-Amange started in the Rediscovery Education Scheme (RES) which is a sort of campaign project among secondary school students and external candidates (drop-out) students of his local government area – Nembe LGA. Nimi Barigha-Amange discovered early in life that education is wealth. Moreso, it is easier to lead 100 educated men than 10 illiterate persons. Hence, he started this scheme to help promote education and literacy up to college level (tertiary institution). Read more about the founder, Nimi Barigha-Amange's Story.
2003:
By this time, the restiveness of the Niger Delta sub-region has started making international headlines. Youth militancy and the federal military intervention had become a commonplace. Consequently, Nimi Barigha- Amange introduced a conflict resolution initiative called Niger Delta Peace Initiative, NDPI . This initiative is solely aimed at engendering, promoting and sustaining a lasting peace in the Niger Delta region. The mission of NDPI focuses on the restoration of peace in the sub-region through dialogue, peace campaigns and socio-economic development/welfare.
2006:
Furthermore, in the founder's passion to alleviate the sufferings of so many impoverished women within his community especially the widows, Nimi Barigha-Amange introduced a micro-credit scheme called Micro-Business Assist, MBA . This micro-credit scheme was flagged off by the then Bayelsa State first lady (now wife of the Vice President) Mrs Patience Goodluck Jonathan. In this scheme, women in cooperative societies under the societies' leadership were given a soft loan of N50,000.00. This scheme was so revolving that it started with 200 women but presently (at mid 2008) has more than 430 beneficiaries of the scheme within 2 years.
Moreso, at the same time, youth trade groups/cooperatives were introduced. These groups of 25 youths were involved with different trades and businesses. They were given the kick-off sum of N500,000. This scheme was birthed with the understanding that “an idle mind is the devil's work tool”. To fight against Niger Delta youth restiveness is to fight against poverty.
2007:
All these three schemes RES, NDPI and MBA started when Nimi Barigha-Amange was not yet a senator or an elected public officer in the country. They were all the fruits of his positive response to the stimulus of visible needs within Nembe local government area. Thus, when he assumed office (in 2007) as a senator of Bayelsa East senatorial district (made up of Nembe, Brass and Ogbia LGAs), he then decided to extend these projects to Brass and Ogbia LGAs of Bayelsa state.
2008:
In 2008, Sen. Nimi Barigha Amange decided to register an umbrella body called Amange Foundation which is an administrative body that oversees and executes all the three above-mentioned schemes and more as could be seen in the PROJECTS AND SCHEMES section of this site. However, Sen. Nimi Barigha-Amange, is still the sole financier of these projects.
Other Information:
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