The Ibadan Youth Province 4 of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and the Savingcross Justicepoint Foundation (SJF) have partnered to feed, donate, empower and sensitise the people of Bakatari community in Oyo State.
The event which took place at the Anglican Primary School, Bakatari, was tagged ‘Let’s go a fishing’ with the theme ‘Indescribable gift’.
According to one of the RCCG pastors at the event, Olaiya Bayo-Fati, the essence of the community outreach was to reach out and to give back to the society, especially rural communities.
Bayo-Fati noted that, apart from feeding the people with the word of God this Christmas season, they also seized the opportunity to feed them with food, donate text and notebooks to basic school students, empower the women with skills, and provide basic medical treatments to the sick ones among them.
While thanking SJF for partnering with them on the outreach, Bayo-Fati said, “We came here to share the light of Christ and to show compassion to the people. We pray that this outreach will happen in many communities where Christ is yet unknown.”
Mary Daramola, the nurse in charge of the medical outreach, expressed satisfaction with the number of people that turned out for medical consultation and treatment. She noted that over 200 people were attended to in the course of the medical exercise.
“We did some minor medical checkups like malaria, sugar, and blood pressure tests. We treated those with malaria and cough, and gave drugs to those with hypertension,” Daramola said. “We also counselled them on healthy lifestyle and advised them to visit healthcare centres or hospitals whenever there is a need to.”
The founder and the executive director of SJF, who is also a barrister, Oluwaseun Folauwon-Banjo, while appreciating the Ibadan RCCG Youth Province 4 for partnering with her organisation for the outreach, noted that the partnership was essential, especially during this Christmas season.
She further noted that the partnership and their presence was a way of extending their legal/humanitarian, social services and goodwill to the people, especially to vulnerable and indigent women and children among them.
Folauwon-Banjo and her team educated and sensitised the women on how to keep their children safe from sexual and domestic violence. They also provided them with information on how to get help in cases of violence and abuse, and educated them on their rights under the law.
After the sensitisation talk, the SJF team empowered the women with skills, such as liquid soap production.
“We believe if they take this empowerment serious, it can be a source of livelihood for them,” Folajuwon-Banjo said. “It does not cost much to start this kind of business. With just a token of N4500, they can start it, and it can put food on their tables.”
The head teacher of Christ Anglican Primary School, Mr Olayiwola Agunbiade, appreciated RCCG and SJF for reaching out to their school and to their community. He stated that the medical outreach will benefit the people and the books will help the children in their academics.
“With the donated books, more pupils will come in when the school resumes for second term because they believe this programme will be a continuous one,” Agunbiade said. “I pray that God should give the organisers the strength to continue this programme.”
The assistance head teacher of the school, Mrs Taiwo Arogundade, expressed joy for what the church and the foundation did for them. She stated that the books and other items donated to the children will help them in their studies next term.
“We pray that God Almighty will give us the opportunity next year to experience this kind of gesture,” Arogundade said. “And for the people that organised this programme, God will enrich their pockets.”
In the course of the programme, the children were engaged with songs, dance, drama, and other social activities.
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