From Mokwugwo Solomon, Nnew
Over 300 persons, including an 86-year-old widow, Francisca Okoye, at the weekend, benefitted from Easter largesse of the Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Paulinus Ezeokafor.
The octogenarian widow and other vulnerable persons from different religious backgrounds received the gifts, including bags of rice, loaves of breads, clothing materials, shoes, umbrella, cartons of noodles and tubers of yam.
Delivering the items to the beneficiaries at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Awka, Bishop Ezeokafor told them to accept their conditions in good faith, knowing that God was always with them.
He said: “There are many people in our society, who are really poor and helpless. This class of people cannot afford one square meal, let alone three square meals per day. Such people need our help. Religious denomination should not be barrier. What matters is living a good life.”
Expressing reservations over the attitude of certain persons, who had turned begging as profession, the prelate regretted that such persons, even when provided with jobs, could still abandon the job and return to begging.
“If you go by what you see or encounter, no one would want to give to the needy, because, people pretend to be suffering from one ailment or the other just to beg for alms,” he said.