HELP ORU CAMP REFUGEES IN NIGERIA!
I spent the whole of yesterday in a refugee camp, (located in Oru Town, in Ogun State, Nigeria) serving as home to thousands of African refugees from Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Cote D'Ivoire, Niger, Sudan, etc., as part of an African Refugees Foundation (AREF) team that took gifts and beddings to help make things a bit better for the thousands of children who have been forced to live their lives as limbo-citizens, because of the grave errors of adult leaders who have chosen war over conflicts-avoidance and dialogue-based resolution-styles. 
The children were overjoyed to receive the "Aunties & Uncles" who brought cookies, books, games, and promises of even-better repeat visits in the near future (starting tomorrow!); but we, the "surrogate-family" were downhearted at the realities of hunger and ineffectual (because ill-actualised) education this children have to contend with...the food portions doled out to each child were less than what an average kitten in a middle-class American home would get for example! I shed tears throughout last night, after we got back to Lagos, as I struggled with trying to figure out how I could help expedite action to bring hope to these hyper-malnourished kids who (worst of all!) have come to believe that their life is condemned to remain like that for ever!
I'm trying to put together a Christian Churches-driven programme that will utilise the already-existing systems of the churches to channel regular one-meal-a-day boosts for every child in the camp (for as long as they are in camp as refugees...as we pray that each child will end up spending much shorter periods in these camps, than the devil woul want them to!).
Everybody is implored directly reach out to the UNHCR and offer a donation that's specifically tied to helping these children get better food and education, so they can live lives that are separated from the seemingly unending despondency of our world's gloom! PLEASE HELP!
Let the rest of us thank God for all His mercies, remembering that nobody makes his birth's choices...whom he will be born...not nationality, not family, and not location or time...
These, and all other, refugee kids are merely "accidents" of nature's random selections, and none of us is totally immune to the disasters of life that can come in many diverse forms including natural disasters (e.g. tsunamis etc.!!) and man-made tragedies (e.g. wars and terrorism!!), which daily and constantly create refugees and internally displaced persons out of innocent human beings like you and I.
Let us always do all we can to help every refugee live a better life...it is bad enough to be traumatically dislocated from one's home...may we all help prevent hunger, disease, and community-hostility from further dehumanising them...especially the women (many of whom are forced to bastardise their bodies to survive!), the aged, and the children (who always bear the main brunt of becoming orphaned, growing under the tutelage of foster or single parents, and being damned to suffer all kinds of indignities, including sexual, physical, and psychological abuses!).
Truly, God-led HEARTS KNOW NO BORDERS!
WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!
Shalom!!!
The children were overjoyed to receive the "Aunties & Uncles" who brought cookies, books, games, and promises of even-better repeat visits in the near future (starting tomorrow!); but we, the "surrogate-family" were downhearted at the realities of hunger and ineffectual (because ill-actualised) education this children have to contend with...the food portions doled out to each child were less than what an average kitten in a middle-class American home would get for example! I shed tears throughout last night, after we got back to Lagos, as I struggled with trying to figure out how I could help expedite action to bring hope to these hyper-malnourished kids who (worst of all!) have come to believe that their life is condemned to remain like that for ever!
I'm trying to put together a Christian Churches-driven programme that will utilise the already-existing systems of the churches to channel regular one-meal-a-day boosts for every child in the camp (for as long as they are in camp as refugees...as we pray that each child will end up spending much shorter periods in these camps, than the devil woul want them to!).
Everybody is implored directly reach out to the UNHCR and offer a donation that's specifically tied to helping these children get better food and education, so they can live lives that are separated from the seemingly unending despondency of our world's gloom! PLEASE HELP!
Let the rest of us thank God for all His mercies, remembering that nobody makes his birth's choices...whom he will be born...not nationality, not family, and not location or time...
These, and all other, refugee kids are merely "accidents" of nature's random selections, and none of us is totally immune to the disasters of life that can come in many diverse forms including natural disasters (e.g. tsunamis etc.!!) and man-made tragedies (e.g. wars and terrorism!!), which daily and constantly create refugees and internally displaced persons out of innocent human beings like you and I.
Let us always do all we can to help every refugee live a better life...it is bad enough to be traumatically dislocated from one's home...may we all help prevent hunger, disease, and community-hostility from further dehumanising them...especially the women (many of whom are forced to bastardise their bodies to survive!), the aged, and the children (who always bear the main brunt of becoming orphaned, growing under the tutelage of foster or single parents, and being damned to suffer all kinds of indignities, including sexual, physical, and psychological abuses!).
Truly, God-led HEARTS KNOW NO BORDERS!
WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!
Shalom!!!
posted by TIUranta at 6:45 AM
2 Comments:
I've sent word of this situation off to my local assembly church pastor, Pastor Paul Adefarasin of House On The Rock, Lagos, and Rev. Fr. George Ehusani, the Secretary General of the Catholic Secretariat. Both men are action-Christians and one expects some positive action from them in the very near future by God's grace. Amen.
Shalom!!!
Whilst one figures out a way to guide all possible support-groups as to how to asssist in this urgent area, my heart tells me that my local parish (HOUSE ON THE ROCK) will put together its own unique help/care programmes for these children, even without my further promptings or inputs...
But I'm not giving up on my passionate commitment to being there for these children and all other children destitutes like them (including HIV/AIDS infected/affected kids!)...
May God be there for all of us always...!
I know He's ever with, and for, me...that's the bond of covenant between Him and this joy-filled love-suffused son of His...What a confidence to have in Jesus an everlasting unshakeable presence of peace, love, and supreme power!
Hallelujah!
Amen!!
Shalom!!!
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