First Lady’s pet project donates 1000 limbs to physically challenged

 

Wife of the Anambra State Governor, Chief Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano, through her pet project, Caring Family Enhancement Initiatives (CAFÉ) has flagged off distribution of 1,000 Prosthetic Limbs Fittings to physically-challenged persons in the State. 270  was the initial distribution to beneficiaries. 

www.blogspot.com reports that Tolaram Foundation of India manufactured the Prosthetic limb fittings while it was sponsored by the Rotary Foundation of Victoria Garden City Lagos,  and donated in support of CAFÉ’s activities.

Speaking at the Women Development Centre Awka, Governor Willie Obiano expressed delight with the tripartite partnership which according to him was “essentially to reach out in special ways to our brothers and sisters who need to be empowered.”

He thanked Tolaram Foundation and Rotary International for the sponsorship, and added that CAFÉ is committed to making life worth living for the physically challenged and promised to increase the gesture by making more prosthetic limbs available to others with such needs in the state.

 Obiano explained that his wife was unavoidably absent because of her engagements at Abuja with the first lady of Nigeria, appreciated the fact that the CAFÉ projects have made the wife to toil day and night “to add value to the lives of special members of the human community,” as she had done before her present public life.

Governor Obiano stated that few months after the launch of CAFÉ, the pet project “underscores her passion, commitment and bold effort at giving meaning to the lives of the dispossessed and disadvantaged.”

The Governor outlined activities the First Lady had carried out to include, renovation of the Basden Memorial School, Isulo, targeted at giving the challenged children quality education and boosting the attendance to ante-natal clinics through enlightenment programmes and advocacy visits to rural and hard-to-reach areas of communities in the State in order to promote maternal and child health and to reduce child and maternal mortality.

He said the wife has empowerment programmes for indigent persons and widows in LGAs through provision of seed money as take-off grants; and agriculture empowerment initiatives like provision of improved seedlings to rural women farmers in partnership with cooperative societies.

He said the CAFÉ  programme was in a “mission of giving back self-esteem and hope of a better and productive life to persons within this realm.”

Earlier in his Opening Remark, Hon Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joe Akabuike, said that the government intervention in the health sector is benefitting from the programmes of CAFÉ which reaches out to the less privileged and people in hard to reach areas. He also observed that many organizations are identifying with and ready to partner with the governor’s wife.

In her remarks, Head of Tolaram Foundation, Ms. Meha Mehra, said that they are committed to producing more quality prosthetic limbs to meet the needs of the beneficiaries, sponsors of CAFÉ and their government partners.

 In his goodwill message, President of Rotary Club of Victoria Garden City, Lagos Sir Dr. Chris Anyakorah, said that Rotary is delighted to be sponsoring the project and partnering with CAFÉ and the Anambra State government to provide succor to the physically challenged persons in the society.

 He assured that they will make available three hundred more prosthetic limbs to Anambra early next year to keep smiles on the faces of the needy.

Reacting on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mr. Benson Igbokwe from Nnewi expressed their happiness for the gesture and thanked the wife of the governor and CAFÉ for choosing them to benefit from what he described as a wonderful Christmas gift to the physically challenged persons in Anambra State.