Physically Challenged Children Get New Home

Succour has come the way of children with physical disabilities in Lagos State, following the construction of a new home that will provide shelter for them.

The new home established within the vicinity of the Lagos State Vocational and Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Persons at Owutu, Ikorodu, Lagos, southwest Nigeria was executed by Ikeja D’ivy Lion’s Club.

Speaking at the event, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Youth and Social Development, Dr. Dolapo Badru, hailed the club for the gesture, while lamenting the stigmatization that people with physical disabilities were confronted with daily.

“The stigmatization faced by people living with disabilities calls for concern,” he said, adding that the gesture went beyond ameliorating their suffering, but also fulfilling the divine injunction that harped on the need to reach out to the poor in the society.

He explained that the new facility had a dormitory and a counseling area, were the needs of the children would be ministered to, adding that “I think if other humanitarian institutions emulate this; it would go a long way in helping government take care of people with disabilities.”

Badru added that government was stepping up plans to increase the infrastructural facilities in order to take care of more children with physical disabilities.

President of the club, Mrs. Elizabeth Coker, explained that the project was borne out of the need to cater for the less privilege in the society.

Coker said she was motivated to carry out the project based on observation of the suffering parents and children with disabilities go through.

“Actually, right from my youth, I have been eager to serve humanity and that’s why if you get to my house you would find many people around me, I like to see people smile and I love to make people feel comfortable.

“Our home is just like a hostel, so even before I joined the Lions, I had it in mind that one day; I would have to do something for the less privileged.

“Again, the first time we went to the state rehabilitation centre, I was so touched; we have orphans, mentally retarded people and people with physical disability and it’s the Lagos State government that is taking care of them,” she stated.