Nigerian Latter-day Saints Provide Nationwide Community Service

For the eleventh year running, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nigeria joined with other congregations of the Church across Africa to partner with other faith-based organizations, governmental, and non-governmental organizations, the media, and residents to provide over 60,000 man hours of community service on  August 19, 2017.

Over 90 communities across 22 states and Abuja were recipients of the services provided.In all about 16,000 volunteers participated in the service day nationwide. 

Dressed in distinctive yellow Mormon Helping Hands vests, volunteers participated in various projects to clean up the community. Volunteers cleared weeds, raked and removed dirt, opened and cleared blocked drains, painted and renovated hospitals and public parks, sanitized markets and government premises, enumerated residences and named streets in hitherto unmapped communities. .

In Owerri, Imo State, volunteers painted five buildings and cleared the surroundings at a Motherless Babies Home administered by Nigerian Red Cross. Prince Keke Chima, JP, Vice Chairman, Imo Red Cross, expressed his gratitude for the service rendered. He noted the Church has always been of great assistance to the organization.

A passer-by, identifying herself as Evangelist Ada Rufus, marvelled that men, women, and children could work so happily together for the less-priviledged, without any material reward. She prayed God to bless such the a group of volunteers. 

“It is the height of sincerity by any public institution. Government is so impressed at your commitment especially the involvement of youths and inculcating in them a sense of responsibility and future leadership, and you do not ask for fees”. This was the remark by Commissioner for Environment, Cross River State, Engr. Mike Eraye, represented at the occasion by the Deputy Director Waste Management, Dr. Ibiang Eteng Ibiang in Calabar, where the service was rendered at the Governor’s Office complex, the premises of the Ministry of Finance and the premises of the Federal Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar.

In Diobu, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, three previously unmapped water-front communities were surveyed, with streets demarcated and houses numbered and labelled by service project participants .

“I can easily be located with this naming and numbering of streets and houses. I can now give my address to my friends and relatives and l will be sure that l will be located”, said Belema Kalio, Youth Leader, Elechi Beach 1 waterfront community.

Elder S. O. Williams, Vice Chairman, Urualla waterfront community, said, “This is a real development for my people that will enable us give addresses to our visitors and be sure of seeing them, thanks to the church”. Another community member remarked that the street naming and house numbering exercise would lead to a reduction in crime as it would now be easy to locate offenders within the community by their addresses.

In Abuja Federal Capital Territory, volunteers from church congregations in Apo, Gwagwalada, Jabi, Lugbe, and Wuse worked together with people from the Kuje community to mop, sweep, scrub, paint, and clean up the surroundings of the Kuje General Hospital. This complemented renovation work on physical structures sponsored and funded by LDS Charities, the humanitarian arm of the Church. An operating table, Oxygen Concentrator, a Nebulizer, a Caesarian Section set, surgical set, a delivery bed, suction machine, patient monitor, and an Accoson sphygmomanometer were hospital equipment donated as part of the service project. See more on this service project at http://sunnewsonline.com/latter-day-saints-re-equip-kuje-general-hospital-fete-patients/  or at Mormon Newsroom Nigeria

About 2700 volunteers showed up at the Ikotun and Mile 12 markets in the Lagos metropolis to clear market debris, drains and adjoining streets. Sellers and passersby initially assumed the volunteers were workers from a government agency. Said one, “I would never have imagined that a religious group could care about a market and do what government should ordinarily do. This is a wakeup call for all.”

For other stories on the service day, please visit:

http://thenationonlineng.net/church-preaches-unity-renovates-popular-park-bayelsa/