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From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
Fifty physically-challenged children are said to be stranded in a home that takes care of deformed children in Port Harcourt, over lack of fund for their surgery.
Compassion Centre for Physically-Challenged and Handicapped Children in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said the home has started making efforts to sponsor surgery on seven out of the 50 of its new intakes, adding that 43 were still standed.
Director of the home, Reverend Sister Ugochi Chikwu, disclosed this when National Association of Seadogs (NAS), visited the home to donate solar panels and some money in Port Harcourt, yesterday.
Chikwu urged concerned individuals and the government to support the home with fund to carry out surgery on the handicapped children to enable them to stand on their feet.
She said: “I am overwhelmed with the donation from the National Association of Seadogs for the solar panels and the money. We never expected this from them because they had visited before and they gave us lots of gifts.
“The centre is known for taking care of physically handicapped children, and these children come from different states. We basically take them to a hospital where they have corrective surgery to correct their deformity so they can walk like every other child.
“Our major challenge here is funding. We have seven children who are awaiting surgery. On our list, we have 50 of the children that need surgery and out of the 50, we have picked seven and 43 will wait.
“If well meaning Nigerians can help us to see these children are given the basic need in life and also get back their feet, they will always be thankful to them”.
Meanwhile, the President of the National Association of Seadogs, Chilaka Worgu, explained that the home needed help, adding that the donation was to enable the physically-challenged children have electricity.
He said: “Why we do all these is because of our core values. As an association, the National Association of Seadogs, we are an advocacy group and we believe in humanitarian gestures like this one.
“We take this visit very seriously because it involves children and it also involves people who are physically-challenged. This is because we believe that what you do for them, you do for the society at large”.
