WA empowers Odogbolu’s schools
In the spirit of Christmas, led by divine passion, and with the objective of promoting a generation with human values and creating a community of people, the Indian Women’s Association (IWA) has completed another round of children support in Orile, a suburb of Lagos State.
This was achieved in conjunction with the Indian Christian Congregation. “Abraham Children” a charitable arm of ICC that provides Christian values for the development of Nigerian children.
During the interaction with the children, president of IWA, Mrs. Geetika Tandon, encouraged the children to be committed to their studies and continue to trust God. And as they continue to obey their parents, IWA will continue to support them the more.
In its endeavour to help the less privileged, the Indian Women’s Association, Lagos, presented a cheque of N300,000 each to Odogbolu Comprehensive High School and Odogbolu Grammar School, to support the education of deserving girl students.
The cheques were presented to Kabiyesi of Odogbolu and his queen, which would be handed over to the school authorities.
Speaking on the responsibility of IWA, Mrs. Tandon said: “We gather Indian women in Nigeria to support community projects like the one of Abraham Children initiated by ICC.
“We adopt schools and provide vocational training. During the COVID-19 (lockdown), we visited Ilupeju Police Station and LASTMA with palliatives, and IWA donated a lot of things both to government and private (citizens).”
In the same vein, the IWA coordinator and treasurer, Mrs. Rupa Walia, said, “We are here to bring our people together to render service to humanity, encourage children to build human values, and to celebrate our rich culture and support charity work in the country where we operate. Service to humanity is the best service anybody can offer.”
It was disclosed that the initiative started in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown, when all Nigerian schools were closed and many poor children were left without any formal education or access to online education. “Basic needs like food, shelter and clothing were also lacking.”
“As part of our social responsibility, we decided to adopt 50 children from Orile area of Lagos for support. To our surprise, there was a response of almost 1,000 children who wanted to be part of the ministry. Due to the social distancing terms, we decided to call them in lots of 50 and started registering them into the Abraham’s Children programme while we conducted an awareness session about COVID-19 as well as the precautions needed to safeguard themselves during the pandemic.”
In addition to strengthen the good work of ICC towards a better society, the IWA partnered ICC to encourage the children as it provided Christmas gifts, writing materials, healthcare items, etc, for the children while they were taught godly and human values to help their growing up.
The general overseer, Indian Christian Congregation, Santhosh Abraham said, Abraham’s Children is an initiative developed as part of the charity outreach ministry of the ICC with the purpose of partially adopting needy Nigerian children between the age of four and 14 and to provide them with sound biblical and social values of human life and to build them up as responsible adults that would contribute to the future of Nigeria.
“We are also open to work as a channel of blessings for some overseer ministries that would like to contribute into the lives of such needy Nigerian children.”
