A non-governmental organisation, the Sir David Osunde Foundation (SDOF), has provided over 200 scholarships and 120 wheelchairs, among others to persons living with disabilities (PWDs) in Abuja.
At the event to celebrate the organisation’s 30 years anniversary of her Easter Monday National Celebration in honour of Persons with disabilities in Abuja, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Pauline Tallen, urged Nigerians to always show love especially to the less privileged.
“I tell people that whatever you gives out will surely come back because God love the cheerful giver and we can make this world a beautiful place by making these class of people happy, reaching out to them, making them feel at home and making them feel part of us all they need most is us, if we can share love we will have peace, what we lack in Nigeria is love, because if there is love all things will go well.
“If there is love there will be peace, if there is love there will be no war, if there is love there will be understanding, progress, development, the presence of God will be there. So all I am asking is lets love one another, lets be our brothers keeper, lets put smile on the faces of the unfortunate ones that find themselves in these hopeless situation,” she added
The Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja, His Eminence, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, who commended the initiative, urged Christians with God given talent to enter into political arena to provide exemplary leadership.
He said even though the political arena is being hijacked by professional politicians who are always going to manipulate the process, Good spirited Nigerians should not be deterred from trying.
On his part, the founder and president of the foundation, Sir David Osunde said within a period of 30 years, millions of Nigerians have realised that persons with disabilities are created in the same image of God, like other humans.
Represented by Dr Anthony Osunde, he urged government and the private sector to provide for the marginalized, especially persons with disabilities, with a view to giving them more opportunity to always showcase their talents.
“Our pleas here is that those in the private sector should join hands with the tree tiers of government to carve out programmes that will be beneficial to persons with disabilities,” he said.
Editing by Daniel Adejo