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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has renovated the Special Care Baby Unit and labour wards of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada, and donated equipment to strengthen maternal and newborn care.
The facilities were inaugurated and handed over on Wednesday, with hospital management expressing confidence that they would improve childbirth conditions and neonatal services.
Christian Chigbundu, Counsellor in the Africa West Area of the church, said the intervention reflected the Christian obligation to demonstrate love through service.
“What we are doing today is obeying the Lord’s command to love God and love our neighbours. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe that Christianity means taking care of the poor and the needy,” he said.
Chigbundu said mothers deserved a comfortable, properly equipped environment for childbirth, while newborns needed adequate medical attention from birth.
He urged Nigerians to support vulnerable people and contribute to their communities irrespective of religious, ethnic or social differences.
“Let us all join hands together. It does not matter how little what we do may be. In any place you find yourselves, there are hands that are down, lift them up. There are knees that are shaking, help them to stand. That is our message today. That is Christianity. That is pure love of Christ, even charity,” he said.
He said UATH was selected because of its role as a teaching hospital and the number of women using its maternity services.
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Chigbundu expressed confidence that management would maintain the facilities, adding that the church would make periodic assessment visits. He declined to disclose the project’s cost.
UATH Chief Medical Director, Prof. Thairu Yunusa, thanked the church, describing the intervention as a significant contribution to maternal and child healthcare.
He said the equipment would strengthen care for pregnant women and newborns, reduce delays in diagnosis and treatment, and support efforts to lower maternal and infant mortality.
The intervention, he added, aligned with the Federal Government’s health objectives and would improve healthcare workers’ morale.
Yunusa urged individuals, businesses and faith-based institutions to support public hospitals with equipment, diagnostic tools and infrastructure, saying government alone could not meet all healthcare needs.
He assured the church that the facilities would be maintained and effectively used.
The church’s Nigeria Abuja Mission President, Ayodele Ojulari, said its humanitarian work also supported the police, military, immigration service and other public institutions.
He cited the donation of computers to the Nigeria Immigration Service to improve efficiency and service delivery.
“We are doing what Jesus Christ did, going about doing good,” he said.
