About 20,000 persons residing in Lagos Island, Ikate-Elegushi, Ebute-Meta and Bariga areas of Lagos state have participated in the end-of-the-year empowerment programme of the Project Spread Initiative, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme of the House on the Rock churches.
The Metropolitan and Senior Pastor of the House on the Rock churches, Paul Adefarasin, who led a team of volunteers to the four communities, also participated in the distribution of food items, clothes as well as medical supplies to the residents.
At the congregation centre for the Lagos Island residents, Adefarasin said he decided to kick-start the empowerment programme from the area because he was also born within the community.
He said the Project Spread initiative of the House on The Rock which is under the auspices of the Rock Foundation has as part of its mandate to always reach out to the needy especially during festivities.
“It is our joy to give like we have been given. This is not the first time and it won’t be the last. We are not in any way competing with government, but we are complementing government’s efforts because we understand that government alone cannot empower everybody and we believe that by so doing this, we will be inspiring other churches and mosques, as well as other religious organizations to reach out to the poor and lift the downtrodden,” the Senior Pastor said.
Adefarasin also revealed that as parts of the Project Spread’s commitment to the needy, plans have been completed to procure 48 more mobile clinics with the aim of ensuring that every Local Governments Areas (LGAs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state has one of such clinics to attend to their health challenges.
“The mobile clinics will be carrying out from time to time, four major functions. They will be teaching health or medical knowledge, diagnose patients so as to know the kind of ailment they are battling with, give treatments where necessary as well as make referrals to more competent hospitals in situations where we can’t handle. Such hospitals are our partners and the patients will be treated at no cost to them,” he said.
Adefarasin also said as part of securing the future for the young ones, the Project Spread Initiative will be awarding full secondary school scholarships to five outstanding pupils who must have done well in their common entrance examinations.
