By Joyce Onuora, Abakaliki
As part of the activities to mark NUJ press week, Ebonyi State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists has paid a charity visit to children’s Orphanage known as Trinitarian Foundation for Orphans and the helpless, located at Oterufie,Ugwuachara, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, where the council donated food items and other materials to support the humanitarian work of the foundation.
The Chairman of NUJ in the State, Comrade Samson Nwafor who led the visit explained that the visit was part of the activities to mark NUJ press week in the state.
According to him, the Council uses the occasion to render both moral and material support to the needy and less-privileged ones in the society.
Comrade Nwafor noted that journalism is more of humanitarian services, hence, the Council prioritizes such charity visitations during its annual press week.
He also pledged to publicize the foundation through the media platforms in the state to attract more supports from the public.
“This is part of the activities to mark NUJ press week.Every year,we set aside a week to appraise what we are doing; invite our friends to come and celebrate with us.We were here last year.
“We were not happy because of the condition of this place. If we had the wherewithal, we would have tackled the problems facing you here.
“But we shall let the public know about this place with our reports; we shall create awareness about this place.
“We decided to come again this year to know how you people are doing.
One of the things we do is to identify with the needy and the less-privileged because our work is purely humanitarian services.
“With this little support we provided,we know it will go along way to cushion the effects of the hardship.”
Responding on behalf of the Management, Sister Emelesina Ani appreciated NUJ for what she described as overwhelming support, saying most of the children under their care lost their parents at birth and the foundation had been catering for them.
“She stated that some of them are in nursery and primary schools while a few of them are in already secondary school.
She appeal to NUJ leadership to assist them to create awareness for more good spirited individuals to come and support in tackling the enormous challenges facing them, adding that the environment doesn’t have fence and is always flooded whenever there’s rainfall.
“I want to sincerely appreciate your coming and your support.Some of these children lost their parents and were brought here for us to take care of them.Many of them are in nursery and primary and about two in secondary school while about six are in primary school.
“We want you to help us create more awareness because people don’t know that we are here and we really need help.
“We have so many challenges.This house no longer contain these children and we don’t have resources to build another one.And we are also suffering flooding here.We don’t have fence, we really need help from good spirited individuals.”
Items donated to the Foundation by NUJ include, Rice, indomie, diapers, tomatoes, children’s bed and detergent.
