Cyriacus Nnaji:
Lagos Diocese (Anglican Communion) has donated the sum of N5million Naira
towards the fight against the rampaging Coronavirus pandemic in the state.
Bishop of Lagos Diocese (Anglican Communion) The Rt. Rev. (Dr) Humphrey
Olumakaiye made the disclosure in a paper delivered on his behalf by the Senior
Secretary to the Diocese, Venerable Segun Ladeinde.
He said “Apart from the Five Million Naira (N5,000,000.00) already paid
by our Province into the designated account provided by the government, we are
donating various food and other essential items directly to the weak and
vulnerable in the state coupled with medical supplies to support the state in
the fight against this pandemic.”
The church has also on Thursday distributed various food items to the
less privileged and challenged Lagosians who were adversely hit by the lockdown
order by both the state and Federal governments.
Part of the items distributed to over 1000 families in the diocese
include 500 bags of 12.5kg rice; 500 bags of 5kg rice; 450 bags of 2kg garri; 20
bags of 50kg rice and 43 cartons of different sizes of vegetable oil.
Other items include 28 bags of sugar; 20 cartons of spaghetti; 50 cartons
of noodles; 9 cartons of Macaroni; 34 cartons of milk; 25 cartons of beverage
(Milo and Ovaltine); Lorry load of water and 75 cartons of sanitizer and other
medical kits.
The Bishop commended Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu saying “We
commend and appreciate the great work you have been doing, since the outbreak
of the pandemic. A great leader is known during the time of crises, you have
demonstrated an uncommon leadership strait.
He said “We deem it necessary, as a Diocese to lend our own support for
the laudable efforts of the government to cushion the unsettling effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic on many families in Lagos State.
“We want to assure you that we are not just supporting you physically,
our prayers are assured and we know that we will overcome this challenge
soonest,” the Bishop’s paper read.
On his part, Venerable Segun
Ladeinde, while speaking to the media on what necessitated the provision of the
food items to the poor said “As a caring organization, we realize that we
cannot be indifferent to the plight of the many challenged masses of the state,
and that is why the diocese of Lagos is partnering with many other well meaning
Nigerians, we have previously done it, we are trying to reach out to those who,
ordinarily would not have any one to care for them.”
Speaking on the number of
people being targeted for the palliatives, he said “Our desire for this first
installment, hopefully we have the hope this whole thing will not be elongated
for too long, but for the first installment, we are trying to reach out to a
minimum of 1000 families, various people who are our neighbors where our
various parishes are located, because if
we have a church in a place it is our responsibility as a church to attend to
every resident irrespective of their religion, because the church is a living
organization,” Ladeinde stated.
He also spoke on the modality
for distribution of the food items saying, “What we have done was to, because
the diocese is divided into smaller units which are known as archdeaconries,
this archdeaconries are further divided into parishes, where the actual people
reside, so what we have done was to share it across the archdeaconries and
subsequently to the parishes, where the workers in those parishes will take it
to the door steps of the beneficiaries.”
Ladeinde stated that since the
lockdown various parishes and archdeaconries under the diocese have been feeding
a minimum of 500 people every day, “So we will continue to do this, but this
one is just to reach out to ones at this time especially as Easter is
approaching, so that many families will have a pleasurable Easter celebration.”
He also made it clear that no
government could meet all the need of her people “We would be deceiving
ourselves if we ever imagine that government can meet all the needs of its
citizens, it is impossible, no government in the world meets the needs of all
the citizens. On our own, we would continue to offer our own assistance to
complement the efforts of government, if we see ourselves as one family
together we can fight this battle and we will win the battle,” Ladeinde said.
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