Therefore, Okoli is today using his non-governmental organization to lift other physically challenged persons. Recently, he went round the South East to partner with the state governments on how to provide wheel chairs and other mobility aids to persons with disability, but unfortunately, only Ebonyi State has so far given him the green light.
For a start, he partnered with the Ebonyi State government in the provision of 208 wheel chairs and other mobility aids to persons with disability in the 13 local government areas of the state.
The Ebonyi mobility support package programme covered various age groups among the physically challenged from various communities/local government areas across the state.
In the provision of the aid, each council area in the 13 local government areas of the state mobilized 16 persons with disabilities to receive the aid free-of-charge.
The wife of the state governor, Mrs Josephine Elechi, while distributing the aids to the beneficiaries, said that the programme was designed to provide succour to the physically challenged persons by way of providing them with mobility aids and relief packages.
She noted that the programme would go a long way to further help the beneficiaries to pursue their vocations with ease, thereby improving their economic potentials.
“I wish to commend the efforts of all groups, agencies, corporate organizations and line ministries, particularly MAARDEC for supporting our efforts at bettering the lot of our physically challenged children, brothers and sisters. I want to assure you all that your efforts at encouraging the programme for the support of the physically challenged will be positively complimented through our dedication to service to these less privileged members of the society,” she said.
Mrs Elechi, however, commended the state government for the various programmes it has been undertaking for the enhancement of the well-being of the physically challenged, urging the recipients to make effective utilization of the mobility aids and relief packages given to them.
In her remarks, the state Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Mary Joy Umoke said that when the centre wrote to the government to partner with it for the provision of the mobility aids, it did not hesitate because the wife of the governor has been looking for an opportunity to assist the disabled persons in the state.
She noted that the provision of the mobility aids would not end of their problems, but would rather assist them to get where they want to be faster.
Dr Okoli said the gesture was in fulfillment of his promise that if God blesses him he would in turn put smiles on the faces of his colleagues, the physically challenged persons in the country.
His words: “I want to work with the Ebonyi State government to help the people with disabilities. When this project started we wrote to all the South East governors and told them that there is an opportunity to distribute some mobility aids and appliances free-of-charge with little charge or contributing cost because all these things came from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saint for Charity.
“We are hoping that we are going to cover the whole country and come back again and again to the state. And I want to say that Ebonyi State government is the only state that responded positively in the South East. We went to Imo and Anambra states, we partnered with non-profit organizations because the governments were not forthcoming. If we should give support and bring all the people with disability in all the local government areas of the state, I’m sure this place will not contain them.
“Why is government not giving attention to these indigent elements of humanity, why are they not being proactive to support those with disability? We have one over 24 people with disabilities in Nigeria which is more than the population in some African countries and this is significant in the population of the country and they should be given attention.
“This project is what we started with USAID; my organization is on of the only three organizations in Africa that provides mobility aid and appliances especially with wheelchairs in most appropriate way using the World Health Organization’s guideline. I have trained and been training others like here in Ebonyi, I have trained one person in wheelchair provision.
“Wheelchair and Appliance Provision Centre has come to stay and we repartnering with the government to achieve this aim. I read Medical Physiology in University of Lagos, I’m a businessman and I do other businesses, but this is where I love because I was four years old when I had disability and I crawled for seven years. Those seven years were the most difficult years of my life and I know what I went through.
“So, when I see someone crawling I know what he passes through. I started my education crawling, I could recall that the first day I crawled to the school other children ran away, that gave me the courage to stay put and had good education.
“I promised my God that since he lifted me up, I will lift up my collogues. I don’t think there is anything you are going through I have not gone through, I was not born with a silver spoon in my hands.I was born to a village headmaster in a village called Isuoffia in Aguata LGA of Anambra State. I was brought up in the village and went to primary and secondary schools in the village, I later went to Orji River.
“And I said to myself, to my family and that is what I’m telling you, nobody should define you, know your capabilities, your abilities and what you can do and no one can tell you what to do in life. Don’t let people tell you that you cannot be the president of this country, don’t let people tell you that you cannot be a successful businessman.
I tell you ability is in the mind, if you tell yourself that you don’t want to be useful to yourself so shall it be. If you tell yourself that you will be somebody in life, you will definitely be somebody in life.
“I could remember when I was in Orji River and told my friends that I’m going be a medical doctor, they laughed and laughed and they said I must be crazy, they said how can you be a doctor?
“When I got admission to read Medical Physiology, a lot of them who
laughed at me went back to school. Why I decided to be a medical doctor is that I realized that the childhood disability prevented me from being somebody due to the disease called poliomyelitis. So, I decided to be a doctor to cure and educate the people with such disease that is preventable. I decided to set this centre to help my colleagues.”
 |
Brother’s keeper: Physically challenged man gives wheelchairs, mobility aids to colleagues |
No comments:
Post a Comment