A United States-based Nigerian and church have reached out to households in Abuja with facemasks, hand sanitisers and food items to cushion the effect of COVID-19.
PowerHaven Church, based in Atlanta USA in conjunction with Adeola Adediran of Dallas, Texas, said the outreach tagged “Feed a Family” was aimed at feeding at least 200 families in Abuja.
The two-part outreach on Friday had recipients gathered at the ECWA Church, Jikwoyi Community, FCT at 10 am with the support Dr. Mary Jane of GAMAC Foundation while the second batch was hosted by Dr. Ayo and Pastor Dorcas Tegbe at their church, Holy Ghost Christian Centre (HCC), Apo Mechanic Village, Abuja.
Adediran, in a text message to our reporter, said the whole idea came about when “I started hearing a lot about the struggles people were facing in Nigeria during the coronavirus pandemic.
She said she heard about how some lower-class individuals were starving because they have no source of income due to the restrictions in the country.
After doing some research, she said she realized the government has not been able to reach out to everyone with the provision of adequate support to keep things afloat particularly among the lower-class individuals.
“This inspired me to create a GoFundMe to help in whatever way I can which in turn raised a lot of funds.
“In collaboration with Pastor Micheal Oyategbe of PowerHaven Church in Atlanta, we have fed over 700 people in multiple cities across Nigeria (Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Ikorodu, Ilorin, Ota).
“Our goal is to feed over 1000 individuals during this time with the hopes of taking on more initiatives in the coming future for the betterment of people’s lives across the world,” she added.
Responding on behalf of all the recipients, Dr. Ayo Tegbe appreciated the good gestures, noting that the turn out was impressive even as his church had to provide buses to commute some of the recipients from and back to their houses.
“People are filled with joy today (Friday) because of this. You can see the joy on their faces that people remember them all the way from America,” he added.
