By Oswald Agwu, Ebonyi
Management of Trinitarian Foundation for Orphans and the Helpless, a missionary orphanage in Ebonyi State, has solicited help from government and public spirited individuals to save the home from being submerged in flood.
The appeal was part of requests made by the charity organization during the visit of Journalists to the home recently.
The visitors under the umbrella of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ebonyi State Council, were in the orphanage to identify with the inmates as part of activities marking her 2024 NUJ Press Week.
The home located along Oterufie road, off Kpirikpiri – Ishieke road, Ugwuachara, Abakaliki, is established by the Roman Catholic mission.
The premises also houses a medium convent.
Addressing the journalists in turn, managers of the home, Rev. Sisters Rosepurisima Nwosu, Mary Agnes Onyejeli and Lucy Anekwe decried the devastations the intermittent flooding has often caused the home.
Nwosu narrated how they often toil some days and keep awake during some nights of heavy rains scooping water away from inside the parlours and rooms of the orphanage while carrying the baby inmates on their arms and backs.
She also noted that the orphanage has insufficient accommodation for her teeming inmates, most of whom were already at various levels of nursery, primary and secondary schools.
She said: “In fact, we need a lot of things.
“We have so many children here, including twins, and more people are still coming on daily basis.
“We don’t have enough accommodation.
“But the greatest is the flood.”
Taking journalists round the premises of the home, Sister Onyejeli pointed to some lingering evidence of devastation left by the flooding, including water marks close to widow levels of the buildings in the home.
She expressed deep concerns over the menace, regretting that the remedial measures introduced by the management of the home, including construction of mini gutters could not help out.
She narrated that the flood sometimes causes some reptiles to seek shelter in the houses in the home, being displaced from their natural habitats.
“In one of the flood nights, as we were busy battling with the flood water, we saw a snake ran into the house, probably to save itself from the waters
” We had to abandon every other thing to get rid of that snake, for the sake of the children who were already asleep.
“So it has not been easy.
“You are our mouthpiece, and we want people to come to our aide”, Onyejeli appealed.
Meanwhile, investigation from our reporter revealed the existence of a perennial stream behind the home with Culvert which very often overflows its bank during heavy downpour.
The home also has no fence around it, which also makes it both porous and vulnerable.
Addressing the management of the home, the Chairman, NUJ, Ebonyi State Council, Comrade Samson Nwafor said the essence of the visit was to interact with the inmates and management of the home, as well as share with them the joy of the 2024 Press Week of the union.
He commended the nuns for their diligence and sacrifice in maintaining the orphanage amidst the present economic uncertainties, and urged them not to relent or be discouraged.
Nwafor assured that the union would continue to partner with Charity organisations in the state to advance the cause of the vulnerable and the less privileged.
The team also visited the St. Vincent de Paul Old people and disabled home, located at Kpirikpiri, Abakaliki where the principal of the home, John Lekpa, appealed to the state government to remember them in its various empowerment programmes.