No fewer than 70 children of Model Community Children’s Home, Awka, Anambra State were on Sunday fed by the wife of the state governor, Mrs Nonye Soludo as part of activities marking 2023 Children’s Day celebration.
The kids who were treated to sumptuous lunch and dinner, specially prepared by the First Lady herself, were full of excitement at the physical presence of the governor’s wife.
Speaking at the event, Mrs Soludo said the gesture was to show motherly care to the children who deserve same love their counterparts were enjoying from their living parents.
She said, “My visit here today is very special for me and it’s simply to extend love to these my children whom life has not been too good to.
“We want to tell them that although their parents are not here, we as a government will always be there for them.
“As children all over the country are celebrating, I thought it would be wise and proper to also give these ones reason to smile.”
She added, “The present administration is doing a lot to reduce the incidence of child abuse, labour and trafficking in the state and one major strategies for addressing the anomalies is education.
“Deprivation is a major challenge the state government will not tolerate. That is why we want to make education at the lower level free so our children can afford it irrespective of their social class.
“We find it rather absurd that a parent will send their wards of lower than 7 years away to live with others as maids or servants, to be taking care of adults, when they should be under the tutelage of their parents.
“This is unacceptable and we are fine tuning laws that will help us fight this issue.”
Responding, Coordinator of the home, Mrs Precious Asiegbunam appreciated governor’s wife for finding time to spend with the children, describing it as hope and encouragement for them.
She revealed that Mrs. Soludo, through the State Ministry of Women and Social Welfare had been responsive to the home’s plights, but appealed for more attention, especially with the increasing number of inmates.
“We need help in the home especially in the area of feeding of the children and some other infrastructure to make the home more comfortable for the children.
“We also need more staff to attend to the children in the home,” she pleaded.
