The wife of the Enugu State Governor, Mrs. Monica Ugwuanyi, has stressed the need for proper care of the vulnerable groups in the society, especially the children.
Mrs. Ugwuanyi who made the case for the children during the inauguration of a home – “Oasis of Hope for the Needy”- established by Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration to care for the needy especially girls with unwanted pregnancy and children outside wedlock, also stressed the need for mothers to live up to their responsibilities to ensure proper upbringing of children.
Her words: “We know that things are very difficult, but some of us mothers fail to live up to our responsibilities. In the morning, we move out and come late without knowing what our children do and the company they keep”.
She urged the operators of the home to empower the inmates through skills acquisition, irrespective of their duration of stay in the home, saying: “It is better to teach somebody how to fish instead of giving the person fish”.
In his remark, the Archbishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical Province (Anglican Communion), Most Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Chukwuma, commended Gov. Ugwuanyi for the initiative to establish the home, describing it as one of the numerous people-oriented programmes of his administration since he assumed office in 2015.
Archbishop Chukwuma maintained that “Gov. Ugwuanyi has done very well by passing the Child Rights Act into law” disclosing: “During the previous administrations, we tried to pass the bill into law but it was not realized. When Ugwuanyi came in, he sent the bill to the House of Assembly as Executive bill and saw that it was passed into law”.
Speaking further on the governor’s contributions to the wellbeing of the children and vulnerable, the cleric said: “Your husband, our Governor, has empowered the committee on adoption in Enugu State and that is why we succeeded in stopping baby factory in the state. As I speak with you people today, there is no baby factory in Enugu State courtesy of Gov. Ugwuanyi”.
He described the establishment of the home as another milestone aimed at rehabilitating the vulnerable people in the state, adding that as the name of the home indicates, it will go a long way in curbing the ordeals of helpless groups in the society.
The Archbishop therefore, urged girls who are being molested and exploited to avail themselves of the edifice for proper care, protection, rehabilitation and re-integration into the society.
In their separate speeches, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Fintan Ekochin and that of Gender Affairs and Social Development, Princess Peace Nnaji, extolled Gov. Ugwuanyi and his wife for establishing the home and upgrading the Uwani Cottage Hospital, Enugu, where the home is located, to a general hospital.
Also speaking, the Chairman Enugu South Local Government, Hon. Sunday Ugwu, expressed delight with the establishment of the home saying that it has added more value to the governor’s laudable efforts towards improving the wellbeing of the people of the state.
“Our governor since he assumed office has been doing a lot for my local government and with the inauguration of the centre, he has given hope to the hopeless”, he said.
