The joy of two hundred physically challenged persons in Anambra State knew no bounds on 30th December 2016 as the wife of the state Governor Chief Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano handed them befitting Christmas gifts of prosthetic limbs and Calipers in continuation of her NGO, Caring Family Enhancement Initiative (CAFE) programme of provision of artificial limbs and mobility aides to persons with disabilities.
Speaking during the limb fitting for beneficiaries at Professor Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre, Awka, Mrs. Obiano who was represented by the Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Legal matters Barrister Mrs. Vera Okonkwo said that the well-being of the physically challenged and the less privileged is of paramount importance to her.
Said she: “The first step in empowering the physically challenged is to give them mobility to enable them move and engage in something meaningful that can put food on their table. As you can see the beneficiaries are happy because it is a new experience which will make them less dependent and more productive.”
With this latest edition of free limb fittings by CAFE, show that the Governor’s wife would have succeeded in giving out prosthetic limbs to over one thousand persons. She highlighted other programmes of CAFE which include; building and hand over of ten CAFE Housing for Indigent Widows, treatment and rehabilitation of fifty mentally challenged persons at Nteje home, training and empowerment two and twenty women, youths and the indigent, free cleft lip/cleft pallate surgeries on thirty children with deformities amongst other interventions. Mrs. Obiano therefore enjoined Ndi Anambra to sustain their support for the current administration to continue the transformations in the state.
Explaining the free prosthetic limb fitting process, Senior Special Assistant (media/events) to the Governor and Programme Coordinator, Dr. Mrs. Ify Mmadukasi explained that the process starts with the physically challenged writing down their names at the office of the wife of the governor, measurement of the missing limb by CAFE partners -Tolaram who constructs the limbs to specifications, and eventually and the fitting.
She stated that apart from the distribution of the free prosthetic limb and calipers, the wife of the Governor also provided Dr. Aladin’s NARV-P Immune system boaster to help those who were amputated as a result of diabetes.
One of the beneficiaries Miss. Gloria Onyedika thanked Mrs Obiano for giving the less privileged sense of belonging in the state, and prayed that God will continue to protect her all the days of her life. She also attributed her recent appointment in the state civil service to the benevolence of Governor Obiano and the wife.
