Tejiri Ebikeme/Francis Sadhere
In a bid to alleviate the sufferings of the poor and vulnerable Nigerian Child living in the streets, Christ Embassy Church is poised to give out one million free meals to children all over Nigeria through its Intercity Mission For Children Food Bank programme.
Briefing newsmen in Warri, Delta State, Zonal Pastor Christ Embassy Church, Siji Dara said that the Church decided to bring the programme to Warri after seeing the success they have made in Lagos.
Pastor Darah said the mission of the church is to help the poor and the needy in the country, adding the apart from feeding the children the church is also going to provide free basic education for them in collaboration with existing orphanages homes in the state.
He added that the Intercity City Mission for Children Food Bank programme is a campaign by the church to stamp out hunger from the country, explaining that the program was focused on the most vulnerable children in the country.
The Warri Resident Pastor also explained the food drive is going to be achieved through the establishment of a Food Bank that will cater for the needs of the Children.
Also speaking a representative of the Intercity Mission For Children, Lagos, Deaconess Goodness Jiemeihe said that the purpose of the programme was aimed at making sure that apart from feeding the children, they will also get quality education that will make them compete with other children in the labour market.
She explained further that machineries have been set up to identify areas where they are going to be focusing on when selecting the children that will benefit from the program.
She said: “We also have what we call the Primary Health Care Initiative that ensures that every child is technically sound health wise. So from time to time our team will go and visit these children and our medical personnel will also be with them. Before now we have done our visibility studies that allows us know the kind of children we are dealing with.”
She also said that the programme is going take their target children on tour around the country and show them places they have never been before, noting that children learn more when they see with their eyes.
Deaconess Jiemeihe said that the program was also targeted at some parents who do not have the means of sending their children to school as the program was designed in such a way that they could be able to assist the parents train their children in school.
She added that during the formal launching of the Food Bank, all the Churches in Warri will come together to support the program by bringing in food items which will be used to kick off the program.
Also speaking, Pastor Jide Owoyemi said the Boko Haram upsurge in the North was attributed to the long neglect of the children in the North by the their leaders who he said encouraged the ‘alamajiri’ system that served as a breeding ground for youth militancy.
He said: “It is not strange for those of us who travel to the Northern part of this country to see the ‘alamajiris’ who metamorphosed into what we call the boko haram today and terrorizing the sovereignty of this country. It was a result of neglect for a very long time. People pretend not to see these children and they pretend they are not there. In this age of modern civilization they go into the dust bins to pick food. But that child will grow up to become an adult and he will no longer beg for food but he is going to come with some weapons and collect what rightly belonged to them from me and you.”
