In keeping with its mandate and core values, Jesu Marie Empowerment Foundation, JMEF, has visited victims of flood disaster in Uwheru Community, Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, South-South, Nigeria.
JMEF, an award-winning international humanitarian organisation and social service provider, was at the flood-ravaged community to present relief materials to victims of the natural disaster who are presently accommodated at the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs Camp at Uwheru Grammar School, Uwheru.
The JMEF team was led by its President and Founder, Prof Rukevwe Akpedeye-Ugwumba, a Canada-based daughter of the soil.
Armed with relief items valued thousands of US dollars, Prof Akpedeye-Ugwumba said “Charity Begins At Home”, hence the choice of Uwheru as the first point of call before any other community affected by the flood menace in the Niger Delta region.
Items presented were bags of rice, bags of beans, bags of Garri, Treated Mosquito treated nets, mattresses, cartons of Indomie noodles, tin tomatoes, toothpaste, and drinking water.
Others include gallons of vegetable oil, detergents, toiletries, loaves of bread, clothing materials and some gallons of petroleum products for the electricity generator in the IDPs camp.
President and Founder, Jesu Marie Empowerment Foundation, said the rampaging flood has done so much harm to the Uwheru Community, saying that it would take a very long time for the people to recover from the natural disaster.
The one-time Special Adviser on Health to former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, and Professor of Medicine and Family Health, sympathized with the victims over the magnitude of losses suffered and thanked God for sparing their lives.
Prof Akpedeye-Ugwumba stated “Jesu Marie Empowerment Foundation, JMEF team is here in the IDPs Camp at Uwheru Grammar School, Uwheru, my home of birth to share in the pains of the 2022 flood disaster. JMEF is a non-governmental, non-profit making that purely provides humanitarian services across the globe.
“Our visit here today is to present all these relief materials to the victims of the rampaging flood which submerged the entire Uwheru community. The properties lost were enormous but thank God for life. The relief materials are meant to help cushion the negative impacts of the natural disaster. It is our hope that the items be judiciously applied towards uplifting the welfare of victims at the camp”, She emphasized.
Prof Akpedeye-Ugwumba appealed to the state and federal government, Corporate bodies operating in the locality, other humanitarian and social services providers and well-meaning individuals to come to the aid of the people.
The amiable Princess of Uwheru and great philanthropist promised to keep close watch of happenings in the camp towards ensuring some level of stability, even as she expressed the hope that the running water will soon renege to enable the people to return to their individual homes.
“You know this is my community. I can never lose focus on issues of development and the welfare of the people. You are my parents, my brothers, my sisters. I can never abandon you in times of need. This flood is not friendly. So our prayer is that it leaves the community as quickly as possible to enable us to return to our houses for the desired comfort,” Akpedeye-Ugwumba stated.
Receiving the items at the IDP camp, the trio of Mr Johnson Ifikivwe, Dcns Loveth Onojoserio and Mr Chris Edesemo commended Prof Rukevwe Akpedeye-Ugwumba and her foundation for the show of love and kindness to Uwheru community.
They acknowledged the magnitude of the problem, stressing that it was very devastating for people to be chased out of their traditional homes by the flood.
Saying that the donated relief materials would help ameliorate challenges in the IDPs camp, the respondents appealed for more support for the victims, pointing out that life was not easy for those at the IDPs camp.
