Over 10,000 widows, orphans, physically challenged, other less privileged persons and youths stormed Stanel World in Awka Anambra State as the Chairman/CEO of Stanel Group, Dr Stanley Uzochukwu, celebrated his birthday with them on Friday.
The two-day long birthday celebration in the presence of God and humanitarian outreaches began with a whole day of praise and worship on Thursday, 29 July 2021 and ended on Friday, 30th July 2021 with gift items worth hundreds of millions of Naira donated to orphanage homes, widows, youths, physically challenged and other less privileged persons from far and near.
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The items included brand new Toyota cars to physically challenged persons, live cows to widow and orphanage groups, thousands of bags of rice, wrappers, Noddles, groundnut oil, salt, toiletries, writing materials, exercise books for school children, loaves of bread, all in their hundreds of thousands, to say the least.
Over N20 million cash was also given out to individuals and groups to take their lives and businesses to the next level.
Fielding questions from newsmen, Uzochukwu said that humanitarian outreaches to widows, orphans, prisons and other less privileged persons are a practice he had sustained for over 12 years, starting from Jos, Plateau State.
“What you are seeing today is a practice we have sustained for over 12 years.
“For me, it is a direct inspiration from God. The money expended on these gift items would have been used for drinks and other things as one of the speakers said but, I am not ignorant of the fact that this is a trying time for many people. Life is not just about income but about the impact on the lives of people.
“Life is not in the duration of how long you live but is in the donations you made into your society. Life is not how long but how well we have lived it.
“We have decided that we want to make an impact in the lives of people by the mercy of God with the little time we have on earth and we will continue to pursue and live the dream.
“Today, I am extremely excited that we have reached out to almost all the orphanage homes in Anambra today.
“We also have the prison outreachs going on; we have all the widows from all the Churches in Anambra State (the Catholic, Anglican Church and all other denominations).
“It gives me so much joy to see lives transformed especially our youths, the young ones.
“Today, you only see people reaching out to youths when they want to use them for personal gains while destroying them and we keep on complaining about our societal ill.
“We need to show the young ones that we love them and that we care about their futures. Like I said earlier, among all the gifts that I gave them today, the Bible is the greatest! The Bible is a manual for human living.
“Every other thing (the wrappers, the food items, cows, the car, money, etc,) will all finish but there is one thing that won’t run out in their lives – the Word of God that I have given them today. As they leave here today, the presence of God will go with them and we also pray for more opportunities for employment to be able to do more”.
Uzochukwu further explained the significance of the over 5000 Bibles he gave out to the new convert, mostly youths who answered his altar call to repentance and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior for the greater future.
“You will agree with me that when young people are not mentored, they go astray. We live in a dangerous age today. The era of social media where all manner of rubbish are flying and the young ones are exposed to all manner of vices and they try to practice them.
“I thank God for people like the Chairman of COSCHARIS, Dr Cosmos Maduka, who said that you can be successful and also be disciplined noting that God is the only way.
“When our young people embrace Christ at their tender age, crimes will reduce, our prisons will be empty, attacks will reduce. When our young people accept Jesus Christ, they will find their path.
“The last time we hosted Nigerian youths in the ‘Access More With Stanel’, they were exposed to mentorship which is key to behavioural moulding. They were an entirely different set of people from those we are hosting today”.
The Stanel boss also reflected on the degrading Igbo culture of ‘servanthood’ and advised the youths to embrace God and to never forget the Bible given to them on the occasion.
According to him, “We are beginning to lose our cultures as Igbos. Those days young people would go and serve under somebody and become something. Nobody wants to serve anymore. All the billionaires in Igbo land were all servants. They all served and learnt but today, social media have taken the hearts of our young people. Everybody wants to make quick money without knowing that there is a process to follow.
“This is why we set up this outreach for people to see that with God all things are possible and that He is the doer of all things. Everything you see in me today is the handiwork of God.
“My advice to the recipients of these gifts is everything they see here today is powered by God and they shouldn’t forget the Bible given to them that I said it is the manual for living. Everything will finish but that will never ever finish.”
Testifying on behalf of Plateau State widows and orphanage groups, Mrs Hanatu Danladi, popularly known as Mama Hanatu, gave mind-blowing testimonies of how Uzochukwu had been impacting and investing in the lives of widows and orphans in Plateau State consistently for the past 12 years.
Mrs Danladi said that his son (Stanley) for the past 12 years celebrate with widows and orphans three times (December, Easter and July 30th being his birthday) in Plateau State every year.
“He celebrates with us, the widows and orphans three times yearly in Plateau State. He also empowers widows with cash donations in hundreds of thousands and millions to start-up businesses of their choice. Some of them are doing well today.”
She also said that in Plateau State, many widows have given their lives to Christ through the Stanel boss’ good works for humanity.
“In Plateau State, many widows have given their lives to Christ because of Dr Stanley Uzochukwu’s humanitarian works and love for us, the widows and orphans,” she said.
Mama Hanatu, in tears of joy, said that she never dreamt of entering an Aeroplane or coming to the Eastern part of Nigeria but today, her son (Stanley) has made these seeming impossibilities possible.
“I came to Awka with aeroplane and already enjoying Eastern environment.
“Stanley is an honest and pure man. In my life, I have never dreamt I would ever enter an aeroplane or coming to the East. But today, my son, Stanley, has made it possible. Today I am in Awka and I came in by aeroplane”.
There were also other several mind-blowing testimonies from different people including staff, pastors, traditional rulers and Church ministry owners among others whom God has used Uzochukwu to bless.