I saw a representative of this organization speaking on TV and I had to find their site and post the story she told about the Logara Remand Home. I eventually dug deeper into their work in Nigeria. Please take a few minutes to read it.


http://www.phjc-nigeria.org/4.html

{My comments are in parenthesis}

Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ; Development in the Nigerian Mission

On April 4, 2006, our Nigerian Mission began with the arrival of two Sisters, Sr. Nkechi Iwuoha, a young professed, and Sr. Christeta Hess, from Germany. They had been invited by Archbishop Obinna from Owerri to start some project for street children. The Sisters rented a house in Prefab and established some contacts to the Ministry of Women Affairs as well as to parishes in Owerri. Soon they started a survey among the beggars and street children in Owerri, and also were asked by the Ministry to look into the Government Remand Home in Logara.

From Logara came our first children - three small children under the age of 12 who had been kept in the Remand Home for more than four years, as well as two school age boys who wanted nothing more than a chance to go to school. The children joined the Sisters in their house. They were extremely malnourished, the younger children could not speak. <<- (she said their diet Sometimes included grass and sand from the bushes around the home)

In June, we found the family of one of the small children. The other two are still with us. The boys who could speak, were prepared for school and started school in September 2006.

(According to the Nuns story, the family of that child lived just 5 miles from the Remand Home and the mother had been looking for her child for months, apparently the police picked the 12 year old? Up and put him in remand with no paperwork or documentation recorded to trace him there. No trial conducted no judicial input at all Very Typical!)

By that time, we knew that a house for children was necessary, and we found a building site near the village of Mgbele, Oguta II, Imo State. At first the children lived in a rented house, by now in 2009, we have built a house and a convent and started building a clinic in Mgbele.

In October 2008, we started work in Ifetedo, having been invited by the Bishop of Oshogbo to work in his diocese. At first the Sisters lived in a rented house and started mobile clinics in Area 4, Meforowade and many other villages in the rural area at the border of Osun and Ondo State.
Next to the Catholic Church we are building a Convent which will have room for a larger number of sisters as both clinic and school are growing fast.


So between 2006 and 2009, three convent areas have been built up: Imo State, Niger State, Osun State. The Sisters work in health care and education and help in the parishes with catechism. The children we took from the streets, are taken care of and they can go to school.


[img]http://www.phjc-nigeria.org/resources/_wsb_321x213_03-1+Logara.jpg[/img]
Small children kept in Logara Remand Home

[img]http://www.phjc-nigeria.org/resources/_wsb_252x187_03-3+kitchen.JPG[/img]

I posted this not to ridicule anyone but to inform those of us who are privileged enough to afford the luxury of Internet browsing or buy Blackberry.

The manner in which we treat our people -especially children and the poor- is a reflection of how much we value ourselves.

This story, plus others like it, always breaks my heart, especially when it has to do with Nigerians. I've personally witnessed stuffs like these before and they continue to exist, the gap between rich and poor in Nigeria is obscene. I digress.

I'm not a Christian, not a Muslim either, but I will give my money to these nuns and their work in a second! I sure will. Please find them and do the same.

On a more personal note, I'm always wary of undue foreign influence on our society, but the TV show that led me to this report featured one of these nuns and she made a statement that warmed my heart; while pointing out the abysmal level of literacy in Nigeria she said this;

"The best way to teach these children and other adults is to give them the information and knowledge they need for survival and development IN THEIR OWN LOCAL LANGUAGE." <<-- I felt like hugging the nun on my TV, she get's it!

Unfortunately most of our leaders and policy makers do not get it!

She also made the point that there are several Poor Nigerians in rural areas who can't even speak local regional languages e.g Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and that is an added burden for them.


Dear Rich kids, Nigeria does not end in Lagos, Abuja, PH, Warri, KD, or Ibadan. Millions are suffering, we need to demand for better online and offline.

How can you keep children as young and as vulnerable as that in a remand home? Under such abject conditions?

As a society, we really have a lot of work to do.

^^We dont know how to build societies anymore (the black man's world that is)^^

Its probly time to stop those who have no means of looking after children from having them.

Ur intention and effort is commendable but we need to tackle the cause of extreme poverty and income inequality instead of the manifestation of poverty

we need to do something.[img]http://2.s07.flagcounter.com/count/DymW/bg=E6E6E5/txt=E6E6E5/border=E6E6E5/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=0/[/img]
[img]http://s07.flagcounter.com/count/DymW/bg=E6E6E5/txt=E6E6E5/border=E6E6E5/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=0/[/img]

abouzaid:

your intention and effort is commendable but we need to tackle the cause of extreme poverty and income inequality instead of the manifestation of poverty

You are right. There are so many issues going on in that post for me, the poverty issue is a starting point.

For example, Take a look at this paragraph from the post again;

So between 2006 and 2009, three convent areas have been built up: Imo State, Niger State, Osun State. The Sisters work in health care and education and help in the parishes with catechism. The children we took from the streets, are taken care of and they can go to school.

I'm not a Christian but like many Nigerians, I benefited from a catholic education at some point in my life. Now how do you think I will view Catholics, cathechism Christianity or even "white religion" language and cultural values ?

Definitely with a lot of positivity. I still do to some extent.

I had to embark on a journey of personal discovery before I could connect back to the inherent positive values in my own African religion, culture and language. These kids are learning catechism just like their grandfathers did  when the portuguese first arrived at our shores.

I bet whatever they learn from these helpers will have an effect on how they will view their world and what philosophy they will consider as more positive. It will most definitely be western, christian and foreign. That is the power of gifts, emotional deposits, and positive care. These Nuns are sowing a seed and we can't blame them when they ( their society, religion and ideology) starts reaping the benefits of these kids allegiance.

Now I know for sure that we have these same values in our own cultures, our religion and our philosophies, but several factors in the last 500 years or so has caused is to lose a lot of that philosophical connection to those ideals. It will be hard to connect back except for those who are priviledged enough to embark on that sometimes lonely Journey of re-discovery.

There is a lot more I can say, but I want to keep the message simple; we should demand more action from our leaders, maintain the societal awareness that will cause us to prevent and fight terrible human situations like this one while supporting those who've made issues like this their life's work.

Tackling the cause is half done if we grasp and do those things.

it has been like that since 60's, no changes and there will be no changes. lets hope on white-people to help us, no hope on black-people.

Bookmarked

Ok its alright Can i have their Bank AC Asap!

Am paying In Pounds, do u guys have a Western Union transfer in Nigeria?!

this is so sad. I would like to help, in my ownway by building a better website for them (i.e if they want it) for free.

@el guapo. you can view their website and contact them for their number. http://www.phjc-nigeria.org/resources/Flyer_PHJC-Nigeria.pdf and http://www.phjc-nigeria.org

@OP All i have to say is God bless you.

@ el guapo If you want to donate to them contact the organization directly. Their address and phone numbers are listed on their website. I'm not even sure they accept outside donation.

My main intention is to create some awareness about this level of suffering, poverty and injustice in our communities and challenge us to hold leaders and public official accountable as much as we can. Giving to those who are legitimately trying to minimize the sufferings of the vulnerable is fine. But we can do a lot more if we make a personal decision not to tolerate the misrule and injustice of those who are responsible for managing our affairs.

The police and services involved with that remand home are one, the ministry is another, local politicians and federal ones need to see that we as a people will not tolerate the kind of wastage and injustice that will cause a Multimillion dollar politician's home to exist few meters away from a remand home where 12 year old kids are fed grass and sand. We deserve better care from our leaders.

heartbreaking seeing those 3 kids shivering in the cold.
its very sad

Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention. I always bleed at heart to know of things like this going on in not just the Nigerian society but our world at large. While I thank the nun sisters for a job well done, I will quickly add that I am not religious, I am more of an Atheist than being religious. If religious people will continue to do something this good, I can plough in my money to help them,

^^
That's my sentiment too when viewed at least from a humanitarian, non-political perspective.

"Somalia conditions" is just a few kilometers away from some of us living in and browsing the internet from big big naija cities.

BTW, @Seun, Mukina, Jarus, OAM4J;

Gentlemen and lady, thank you for putting this on your homepage. It is getting good views.

And the Archbishop had to bring people in from GERMANY (not Nigeria) to care for these poor children.

Its probly time to stop those who have no means of looking after children from having them.

Yours is the truest statement I've read on NL thus far.

^

Where on earth has that ever worked? I mean stopping poor people from having kids? Except we want the china method.

Poverty forces people especially the not too informed ones to practice such negative things like having more kids than they can cater for, think about child control, you need knowledge, financial means and a higher level of awareness to effectively practice or teach it to poor people, actually most of the low birth rate populations we have on earth are in Europe and other highly educated parts of the world e.g Japan.

Poverty and ignorance needs to be tackled head on to solve the problem, especially extreme child and women poverty.

I really don't know why those bishops did not look to Nigerian missions and charities for help as some of them are doing good work too.  But if we take a good look at it, we can guess it's due to the expertise, experience and maybe resources available to these Nun's, they are Catholics afterall.

Anyone who has ever experienced a catholic education will tell you they are experts at these sort of things and they do it very selflessly as their lifes work. Mother Theresa comes to mind.

Besides charity, I hope folks are getting the political message I'm trying to send with this post too. We can make a difference if we make a personal commitment to choose the right leaders and encourage others to do the same.

the ans is go and rich out to as many as you can

@Okada man, may the almighty nature and whoever you believe in bless you. I like your comment and you said it all.

^
Ise!

Everytime we get the opportunity to do leadership change, let us remember these children and help them with our money and our votes. Trust me, There are still good people in Nigeria. We only need to work on Correcting the system.

nakedall:

it has been like that since 60's, no changes and there will be no changes. lets hope on white-people to help us, no hope on black-people.

You've to been joking, "lets hope on white-people to help us." What incentives would the whites (or any non blacks) have to assist us? What will be short and long term consequences? We only need to look back in history and present day to realise the truth, just to saying.

Most of the problems are the govt. inability to address poverty in the country and the citizenry being too comfortable with the Nigerian conditions. It's still a surprising thing to see over 70% percent of the population living below poverty line with all the resources available in the country.

It's time ordinary citizens start to fight for their rights and what is right. I can't see anything wrong if something of that nature call for peaceful demonstrations because the govt. are ignoring the society, forgetting that they are the building blocks of any nation. Imagine the future of the nation looking like that in a remand homes and how the future of the country is going to look like. The rich as well need to see beyond their noses and invest into lives like these ones than running around looking for ways to oppress. It's time Nigerians start to organize themselves and help themselves.

Those images are disturbing and are ruin my eyes. I hope something is done quickly to rescue those kid from the brink of falling dead(they are already sick) like those in the famine ravaged countries in the horn of Africa.

BrownQ:

You've to been joking, "lets hope on white-people to help us." What incentives would the whites (or any non blacks) have to assist us? What will be short and long term consequences? We only need to look back in history and present day to realise the truth, just to saying.

some whites, ex-colonialists, they should pay to Africa, and all other nations in the world they exploited so that they could be rich today. Starting with UK!
Big power exploited my country in the past, now they dare to give us lessons

i dnt need to stay here no more, am going to Ghana. i hear things are getting better and better there.