Home for The Needy is a foundation being operated by the International Christian Church(ICC) situated in Uhogua, Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State.
The facility accommodates and caters for tens of thousands of indigent people, widows, widowers, orphans and victims of the Boko Haram insurgency and banditry in the northern part of the country. These internally displaced persons (IDPs) form the largest group of people in the facility hence it’s been tagged IDPs Camp.
Brain behind the foundation, Pastor Solomon Folorunsho, breeds no nonsense as he instills discipline in his wards even as they are trained to be God fearing, honest, live decent lifestyles and abstain from sin.
This has gone a long way in shaping the lives of all and sundry Christlike. Products of the secondary school, Christ Like School, operated by the foundation have continued to excel in tertiary institutions across the country where they are schooling.
But all the efforts that have been put into training the kids to be decent, honest and hardworking is being thwarted by lack of finance to pay their way through school. The feeding system in the facility is also very poor because of shortage of food stuff.
In the past high networth personalities, top politicians, heads of federal agencies and departments, top officials of the Edo State Government etc have paid visits to the facility to have a first hand knowledge of the situation inside the facility. But after one or two such highly celebrated visits where such personalities promised heaven on earth to always be available when their support is needed nothing is heard of them again in the camp.
To date the foundation has produced hundreds of graduates most of whom are now contributing their quota to the betterment of the society in different endeavours.
Rifkat, a graduate of Law from the Edo State University, Uzaire, having passed out in flying colours is awaiting admission to the Law School starting from November. Her major problem is the over N1million that she needs for fees, books, a laptop, feeding and other necessities.
Amos Ishaku graduated with first class honours in Chemical Engineering with a GPA of 4.8 from the Edo State University, Uzaire. He is awaiting his call up letter for the National Youth Service.
William Jeremiah is a 200 level student of the Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State. Despite his good performance in school he was not allowed to write his last exams because of not being able to pay up his school fees. There are 53 others like him from the IDPs Camp who are suffering the same fate because of non payment of school fees.
On Saturday, March 18th, eligible voters in the facility, armed with their voters card, trooped to a nearby polling booth to exercise their franchise by participating in voting for candidates of their choice in the Edo State House of Assembly election.
However, it ended up in disaster as some political thugs(believed to have the support of one of the political parties) brandishing sophisticated arms and ammunition stormed the polling area, shooting sporadically, injuring a horde of the voters, which included some of the IDPs Camp inmates.
Mercy Bitrus, who cannot walk without using crutches, was one of the affected IDPs inmates. As she awaited her turn to vote, the hoodlums, arrived to cause mayhem. As Mercy fell down, others who were trying to escape too, trampled on her. Much later she started feeling pains all over her body and couldn’t get up.
She has been to numerous health facilities and traditional bone setters but no respite after spending millions of naira. She cannot sit upright coupled with the sharp pains she continuously feels on her broken waist. The life threatening injury has made her to stop schooling for almost eight months.
Another victim of the election tragedy is Grace Ivri who was also trampled on by the large crowd. For almost eight months since that March 18th poll she has not been moving her left hand which she permanently places in an upward position. She, like Mercy, does not sleep well even as she experiences sharp pains in the injured hand from which she has not been relieved despite spending millions of naira moving from one hospital or traditional bone setter to the other.
Speaking with Popular News, Evelyn Omigie, a caregiver in the IDPs Camp, appealed to kindhearted people to come to the aid of the Home for the Needy Foundation in solving the financial crisis that it is experiencing.
“These children have been highly traumatized and we don’t want to see them go through such a terrible experience once again,” Omigie stressed.
In his own submission, Pastor Folorunsho said: “I want to thank everyone who have supported these children’s education. You can see that the result is showing. They’re coming out in flying colours. They’re scoring high grades – first class and second class upper – nothing lower than that. They still need financial support to go much further.
“A lot of them are going for the one year Law School programme which will cost each of them over a million naira. There are over two hundred of them who are doing well academically in the universities but are not allowed to write their examinations because they have not paid their school fees.
“These are children who will surely give back to the society whatever that has been invested in them. They are the future of Nigeria which we must not let slip from us for whatever reason.”
Pastor Folorunsho also pleaded for support in treating those injured during the Saturday, March 18th poll saying: “It is unfortunate that the attack on the innocent voters happened. Two of them are still bed ridden. I just hope that somebody up there will see these children as theirs and come to their aid.
“The process of transporting them to and from where their bones are been set is so expensive not to talk of what is charged as fees to bring them back to good health.”
Pastor Solomon Folorunsho can be reached on +2348033441246
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