The twelve persons who werea picked up on Anambra streets as mentally deranged and brought to the Anambra State Home for the Mentally Challenged, Nteje in Oyi Local Government Area have finally found their way home after undergoing full recovery processes at the centre.
The twelve persons, four women and eight men, all from outside Anambra State, had been wandering on popular streets around the State until they were brought to the centre where their full rehabilitation processes began.
Correspondent, Daniel Ezeigwe reports that rehabilitation centre is a social work arm under the Anambra State Ministry of Social Welfare, Children and Women Affairs, but enjoys major support and partnership with the Caring Family Enhancement Initiative CAFE, a charity organization run by the wife of the governor of Anambra State, Dr Ebelechukwu Obiano.
The rehabilitated persons were also given household materials, foods, cash and equipment to start off any of the vocations they had learned at the centre.
The rehabilitated persons are from Osun, Kwara, Enugu, Rivers, Imo and Ebonyi States.
Speaking at the event, the wife of the Governor of Anambra State and founder of the charity organization, Caring Family Enhancement Initiative, CAFE, Dr Ebelechukwu Obiano, said that she was excited with the achievements of the centre over the past six years, insisting that every human deserves love irrespective of mental or social State.
Dr Obiano also said that it is important that the society sees those with mental health challenges as redeemable and not to stigmatize them, noting that having learned different skills while at the centre, the rehabilitated persons would be able to cater for themselves and contribute to their family’s and society’s development.
The Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly Right Honourable Uche Okafor, said that what stands out in the governor’s wife’s charity attitude is her disregard for class, religion and ethnicity, observing that the fact that none of the rehabilitated persons were from Anambra State says something unique about character.
In her speech, the Anambra State Commissioner for Social Welfare, Children and Women Affairs Lady Ndidi Mezue, noted that the current new look of the centre was as a result of the governor’s wife’s recommendation, including the setting up of a sick bay and skill acquisition centre, and added that Dr Obiano’s infectious kindness stands tall among all charity stories.
Some of the rehabilitated persons, Mr Enerst Eze from Nsukka in Enugu State and Chinyere Okonkwo from Awgu also in Enugu State said that the love shown to them at the centre even though they were not from Anambra State was deep, and prayed for the governor’s wife whom they described as a woman with incomparable compassion.
Since its establishment in January, 2015, the centre has rehabilitated a total of one hundred and forty-two persons, of which eighty percent of them are not indigenes of Anambra State.
Comments are closed for this post.