Nigerian Army Officers Wives Charity programmes Share Similarities with CAFE
The wife of the Anambra state Governor, Chief (Mrs.) Ebelechukwu Obiano has praised the charity programmes of the Nigerian Army Officers wives Association (NAOWA) which she noted share similarities with some of the initiatives of her NGO, Caring Family Enhancement Initiative (CAFÉ). Mrs. Obiano stated this Wednesday when the wife of the Chief of Army Staff/National President of NAOWA, Mrs. Umma-Kalsum Tukur Buratai and members of the association paid her courtesy visit at the Governors’ Lodge Amawbia.
Mrs. Obiano also expressed appreciation to Mrs. Buratai and the NAOWA delegation for choosing Anambra State this year for their charity work and outreach to the less privileged and the sick at Model Motherless Babies Home/ Day Care Centre, Awka and St. Charles Borromeo Hospital Onitsha where they donated varieties of gifts, food items and hospital equipment. Said Mrs. Obiano on the donations;
“I am happy that you chose to visit a home and hospital in Anambra but surprised at the amount of food stuffs that you have stockpiles you’ve brought for the children, and medical supplies/equipment for the hospital. As you can see they are all excited. I can only enjoin NAOWA to sustain the spirit, and pray to God for abundant blessings on NAOWA and invite you to visit us again very soon.”
Elaborating on the programmes of CAFÉ, the wife of the governor said that the project includes the training and empowerment of over two thousand five hundred women and youths, building of twelve houses for indigent widows, sinking and handing over of more than fifteen boreholes in different communities of the state, sponsoring of surgery for 30 children with congenital mouth disorders, provision of over prosthetic limbs and wheel chairs for over seven hundred persons, and building of public toilets in rural markets for market women to eradicate dangers with open defecation which prompted UNICEF and the European Union to crown her as Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH, among others.
Speaking of their mission to Anambra, the wife of the Chief of Army Staff/ National President of NAOWA, Mrs. Umma-Kalsum Tukur Buratai explained that the yearly Chief of Staff meeting is holding in Owerri, Imo State, and that the wives of army officers under the umbrella of NAOWA normally use the period to engage in charity works which they chose to bring to select institutions in Anambra State.
Presenting the gifts at Model motherless Babies Home, Awka Mrs. Buratai stated that the gifts items they brought may not be the everlasting answer to their needs but it is a clear demonstration of the unity of spirit of NAOWA. She also called on the Managing Director and management of St. Charles Borromeo to make effective use of the donated materials for the benefit of their patients and their welfare.
Earlier at the Model Motherless Babies Home/ Day Care Centre, Awka, the state Commissioner for Social Welfare, Children and Women Affairs, Dr. Victoria Chikwelu explained that the Model Motherless Babies Home has enjoyed a new lease of life and better fortune for the inmates since it was taken over by the government.
