Juliana Francis
Tears of remembered pains streamed down the leathery cheeks of 70-year-old Mrs. Alice Okogbo as she recalled how she lost her husband and home, and then had to relocate to Gowon Estate, Egbeda, to live in a derelict looking shanty.
Many people in the estate said that the shanty was
not fit for human habitation. But Okogbo, speaking with our reporter, said that
she had no choice than to live there. She got used to cold seeping into her aged
bones and mosquitoes feasting on her and singing to her at night.
Pastor Olele and Okogbo
However, the living condition of Okogbo changed
after she had an encounter with Pastor Juliet Olele, founder of Comforter’s
Hands of Care Foundation. Olele, who is passionate about issues that have to
with widows and children, built a lovely house for Okogbo. Olele went further
to do a housewarming party on July 3, 2021 for Okogbo.
It was on that fateful day that Okogbo took a walk
down memory lane, weeping bitterly as she narrated how her husband, a policeman
died and then wept for joy as she recollected the advent of Olele into her
life.
Okogbo said: “I have been living in this shanty for
over 22 years. I kept asking myself when I would get to live in a brick house
again. When Pastor Juliet saw where I lived, she was shocked. She broke down
and wept! She asked how I was coping with the mosquitoes. She promised she
would build me a brick house, but I didn’t believe it. And then I saw people
bringing sand, bags of cement and blocks. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
Okogbo, a mother of five girls, said that her
daughters got married, had children and began struggling to fend for their
children. Okogbo said that she didn’t think it would be fair to add to their
burdens, thus she continued to live in her shanty.
And then tragedy struck; two among the daughters
died in the same year. Okogbo was left with three grandchildren to fend for. “My
three remaining daughters are not financially buoyant! I used to sell medicinal
herbs at Mushin, but now I can barely work or walk because of acute arthritis.”
Okogbo said that she was married to a policeman, but
he died in 2000. The man, an inspector, collapsed in the line of duty and died.
Thereafter, Okogbo lost their home.
She recounted: “After he died, I didn’t have
anywhere to stay. I then came to live in this Gowon Estate. I had bought this
land some years along, and so, when I had an accommodation challenge, I came
here to live. I had no money to start a building, but I managed to get some men
to build a shanty for me. Yes, I have a brother-in-law, but he has no money to
care for me. I had to be on my own. I really thank Pastor Juliet.”
Olele said that she started the foundation in 2020
during the COVID-19 lockdown. The lockdown made her to confront and understand
the realities of the sufferings of widows, she said.
She said: “I’m an orphan, so I know what it means to
feel pains and to suffer. If you don’t have the spirit of giving, you can’t do
charity work. I started with a bag of rice for different women and wrappers for
some. Within a month, we had empowered 20 women with N20, 000 each. God has
enabled us to do so much. We’ve paid widows’ rents and their children’s school
fees. It’s only God that had been assisting us to feed some widows. I took a
vow, that as long as I am alive and God continues to enable us to feed these
women, I wouldn’t stop! They’ve all become like a mother to me.”
The pastor added that she had further vowed to share
food to widows every week. She said: “There are widows who had no money to
ensure their children go to school; we’ve taken care of their children’s school
fees. We gave Miss. Favour, a scholarship that will see her through senior
secondary school to the university.”
Olele recalled that there was a particular widow,
who wanted to sell her ceiling fan and cooking gas in order to raise money for
her child’s West African Examinations Council (WAEC), but the foundation
stepped in and took care of the payment.
“God also enabled us to build a house for our mother,
Alice Okogbo. There’s something else we are planning to do; to acquire a large
expanse of land, where we will build 500 apartments so that every homeless
widow will have a place to live until they are on their feet. Also, while
living there, we will empower them, so that they will have a job or handwork to
sustain them,” Olele enthused.
She said that the foundation had assisted over 500
widows in Lagos, but now, she was looking at expanding her helpline to other
states. She stated: “We started in November last year and we’re not a year yet,
but God has assisted us to achieve so much.”
She said that without her partners, that the achievements
wouldn’t have been possible and her journey would have tortuous and probably
fruitless.
Other widows, who had benefited from the foundation,
shared their stories. Aminatu Mohammed said that she used to cry most times
until she met Olele. The pastor gave her N20, 000 and she started a petty
business of buying and selling palm oil. Mohammed came all the way from Idiroko
in Ogun State, to Egbeda, in Lagos State when she heard about how Olele was
assisting widows. She had never regretted that step of faith she took.
Another widow, Folake, said that she used to bake
and hawk cakes in order to make ends meet, but everyone avoided her because she
was always looking dirty. She had no clothes. Olele blessed her with clothes
and money and her business turned around. “My dirty appearance made people not
to buy my confectionaries from me. After Juliet blessed me with clothes, I
looked cleaner and then I started making money.”
Miss. Patrick Favour was the teenage girl who got a
scholarship to university from the foundation. She said: “My mom had been
struggling to take care of my siblings and I.
But Pastor Juliet has wiped away tears from the face of my mother.”
The mom, Chinyere, said that she used to suffer from
High Blood Pressure (BP) because of her burdens and worries, but then Olele came
into her life and started assisting her financially. Now, she sleeps soundly at
night.
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