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From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
As the year 2020 drew to a close, the Lincare Project, like it did in 2018 and 2019 again, brought succour to people living within the rural communities in Abuja. Like in 2018 when it fed the inhabitants of Jikoko Community within the Mpape area of Abuja and in 2019 when it extended scholarships to the brightest students within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Lincare Project took its philanthropic gesture to women in Galadimawa village and the Gongola Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp by donating solar dryers to them. Solar dryers, it would be recalled, are devices that use solar energy to dry substances, especially food. It is a departure from the age-long drying of agricultural crops on the floor, rooftops and on the streets.
The solar dryers, when put to use, will alleviate the many hassles encountered by women in rural communities in the preservation of their agricultural produce from pests and other insects, which destroy their hard-earned harvest each year. With the donation, the rural women would not have to dry their produce on the floor in nylons, or spread their produce on the rural roads or on the highways; in turn, protecting them from such occasional dangers and hazards that are usually accompanied by such moves. Explaining the essence of the donation, one of the promoters of Lincare Project, Miss Olivia Kalu, said she conceived the idea of the donation of the solar dryer in July, 2020 after seeing the way people dry their agricultural produce on the floor.
“We decided to build solar dryers to help tackle this issue, to help those indigent farmers in Nigeria. After their harvest season, animals and insects, are able to come into their fruits and vegetables bringing all types of diseases such as aflatoxins.
“Aflatoxins are very detrimental to one’s health causing diseases such as liver failure and liver cancer. With the solar dryers, it will stop any insect and animals from coming into their fruits and vegetables which is a safe and healthy way for people to dry their fuits,” the younger Kalu said. The donations from Olivia and her sister, Nicole Kalu, took the women by surprise and they did not hide their emotions as they expressed gratitude to the children of the Chief Whip of the Senate and former Governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
Speaking with Saturday Sun, one of the women, Mrs Miyatu Obida, said: “I greet all of you that came here this period in God’s name. As you came to our aid during this period to teach us how to use this solar dryer, we are sincerely grateful.
“We will make good use of it and we thank you in the name of God. May God bless you more and as you go back, may almighty God take you safely to your destination.” Also speaking, an elated Mrs Faith Sunday, told Saturday Sun that she was glad and grateful that the Lincare Project provided the solar dryer for the community. Sunday said: “I thank God and I am happy that you brought this to us here. For you to have remembered people like us and come to this village, I pray that God will continue to empower you in order to remember us.
“As we use this, we will never forget you and we pray that more and more will continue to come on your way and our way too. I thank God and pray that you who have brought this, God will continue to provide for you. We are happy and everybody will use it. It is not for one person. Everyone will use it.”
