Ebonyi leprosy patients demand empowerment

Leprosy patients who have been cured and discharged at Mile 4 Hospital, Abakaliki,

Ebonyi State, have appealed to the government, corporate bodies and good spirited individuals to resuscitate them to enable them go on with their normal lives.

They also requested the provision of skill acquisition centre in the leprosy colony so that some of them who have been discharged could gain experience on how to be self-reliant.

Speaking at the Leprosy colony at Mile 4 Hospital Abakaliki when the Hospital Visitationaries of Mary, a charitable organization, under the Catholic Church, Abakaliki Diocese six of the victims of the disease lamented that though they have been cured of the disease and discharged they could not go home because they have nothing to start life with.

A staff of the Mile 4 Hospital, Mr. Dennis Ndubusi, disclosed that it was only that the leprosy patients could not go home but also most of their children have not been enrolled into primary school, saying that the long term negative effect was that they could be a burden to the government and society at large when they grow up.

According to Ndubusi, urgent academic assistance to the children and the aged has become necessary because some of the discharged patients who went back home had died because nobody was there to help them and they could not help themselves because the sickness had affected them seriously.

Touched by the appeal from the patients, the founder of the charity organization, Rev. Fr. Chidi Obasi said he and his team would do something after close observation to their demands, stressing that the NGO depends on public assistance to render help to indigent patients.

Fr. Obasi said on their own as an organization they may not solve the problems, but was optimistic that with the support from people, the hospital visitationaries would do the little they could to alleviate the problem facing them.

He commended those who have contributed to the organization.

He disclosed that last year the organization paid the sum of N1.5million to offset hospital bills of indigent patients at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki and was spurred to do more.

The President of the charity organization, Kelvin Mouolukwu assured them of their prayers, adding that they should love each other and have hope of healing from God.

He explained that the visit was to show them how important they were to the society and that was why the organization took it upon itself to come and celebrate with them.

From Jeff Amechi Agbodo