By Michael Nnebife
The Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Most Rev Dr Paulinus Ezeokafor, has commended Sir Paul Chukwuma for donating a brand new ambulance bus to Sickle Cell Orphanage and Underprivileged Home, Agulu, to ease the transport challenges facing the Home.
Bishop Ezeokafor, who gave the commendation at Nise in Awka South Local Government Area, Anambra State, 12th January, enjoined other affluent individuals to emulate Sir Chukwuma’s kind gesture to help ameliorate the sufferings of the innocent children living with sickle cell disorder.
Blessing the fully equipped brand new ambulance, the Bishop who was on an episcopal visit to St Felix’s, Nise, prayed God to reward the donor and give the beneficiaries support and grace for good health.
In an interview with Fides, the Director, Sickle Cell Orphanage and Underprivileged Home, Agulu, Aisha Edward Maduagwu, expressed gratitude to Sir Chukwuma for what she described as his exceptional magnanimity.
The Director, who said that sickle cell disease was synonymous with a midnight crisis, told Fides that for the past 10 years, the Home had been begging both the past and present governments in the state for the all-important ambulance, but to no avail.
‘So, it’s a thing of joy and thanksgiving that our beloved brother, Sir Paul Chukwuma, in his magnanimity and ingenuity, decided to give us this ambulance even when we less expected it.
‘In the midnight, severe cases of sickle cell trigger, and in every month we’ll have a number of our inmates rushed to hospital around 12, 1, 2, 3 am when the crisis of sickle cell triggers.
‘Considering the security situation in Anambra State, kidnapping and child trafficking; anybody can be trapped, including our driver, with our children while in a common vehicle.
‘So, this very particular gift from Sir Paul Chukwuma came at the right time.
‘We less expected it; what we were anticipating was a shuttle ambulance bus; that’s what we had been begging the government. But Sir Paul decided to give us his own executive ambulance vehicle,’ Maduagwu said.
She continued to appeal to the Anambra State Government and affluent individuals to complement Sir Chukwuma’s gesture with a Sienna or a school bus, saying that, ‘Sickle cell children are allergic to very hot weather, as well as rainy season; but at each point in time in their lives, they need to be moved.’
Maduagwu, who is the National Coordinator, Association of People Living with Sickle Cell Disorder, also told Fides that the Sir Chukwuma ambulance gift, which, she said, overwhelmed her, was made under anonymity, but due to the fact that the Orphanage Home belonged to a chaplaincy, the gift could not be hidden.
She disclosed that Sir Chukwuma had been massively donating finances and food materials anonymously to the Home.
