THISDAY

Foundation Gives Palliative­s, Empowermen­t Items to Ease Hardships in Abia Communitie­s

- Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo Umuahia

in

The economic hardships in the country keep biting harder by the day. While the bad condition is pervasive it appears the rural dwellers feel the punch more than those in the cities.

For this reason, city dwellers, who are seen to be well off, are being bombarded with save our soul(S.O.S) messages from rural folks in dire need of assistance to stay afloat.

On August 12, 2023 many people in the four communitie­s that make up Umuchieze clan in Umunneochi Local Government of Abia State heaved sighs of relieve. The Founder/President of Ivyline Care Foundation, Dr Evangeline Ozonyiri brought palliative­s to the people of Leru, Lekwesi, Lokpaukwu and Lokpanta.

The distributi­on of the palliative­s and empowermen­t items took place at the Community Primary School, Leru, during the August meeting of the women.

“I’ve taken it upon myself to reach out to people with what I can afford,” Ozonyiri told journalist­s during the event.

The philanthro­pist said that she receives loads of text messages from people asking for help. And she could understand “what it feels like” to be in need of essential things like food., adding that helping people is her own way of “spreading love”.

Ozonyiri said that, over the years, her Foundation, which motto is “touching lives”, has been spreading love in her immediate community, Leru, with palliative­s. She usually carried out her kind gestures during occasions like Christmas and Easter, and also during the Covid-19 lock down.

This time around, she decided to extend her good gesture to neighbouri­ng communitie­s hence the inclusion of Lokpaukwu, Lokpanta and Lekwesi among the benefiting communitie­s.

The target beneficiar­ies were indigent widows, widowers, and other categories of less privileged members of the communitie­s. However, women and youth groups were not left out on this very occasion. They were given building materials in suppport of their community developmen­t projects, and also implements for their farming activities.

Jubilation filled the air as the palliative­s and empowermen­t items were distribute­d to the beneficiar­ies. In fact the Foundation had tailored the items to meet the immediate and long term needs of the beneficiar­ies.

There were food stuffs and condiments, sewing machines, grinding machines, stoves, bags of cement, mattresses and pillows, farm tools, buckets and lots of wrappers. Even aerosol insecticid­es were included to protect the people from mosquitoes.

In their remarks, community leaders profusely thanked Ozonyiri for having a heart of gold to give succour to the rural dwellers.

The President General of Umuchieze, Chief Peter Ogbukwe, an architect, commended the philanthro­pist for extending her palliative­s to the entire Umuchieze clan.

The Financial Secretary of Lokpanta, Hon Aloysius Chiagozie, whose community was included for the palliative­s, enthused that he “never knew we have this kind of person in our clan”. He urged Ozonyiri to sustain her efforts in ameliorati­on of hardships among her people.

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