THE BOY CALLED  OSHIOMHOLE

Over three years ago when one of the orphans at ChariLove Home was hospitalized in the children’s ward of the Central Hospital, we noticed three or four children who were there without parents. One of the children was with disabilities while the two or three others were very normal. We were moved with compassion for them and we began to think about beginning the process to move them to ChariLove Home. But the next time we were there in the children’s ward, the two or three children who were very normal, healthy and fine-looking, had been taken away, leaving behind the one with disabilities. The nurse on duty approached us and requested us to collect the handicapped child. On asking about the whereabouts of the other children, we were told that they were collected by some authorities who refused to pick the handicapped child because of his critical condition. We were irked by this very unsocial behavior of the concerned authorities. Why would they pick the normal children and reject the handicapped and most vulnerable child? We told the nurses to go get those authorities to come pick the handicapped child as well.

The child has remained abandoned for over three years, living on the floor of the children’s ward of the Central Hospital. More pathetic was the fact that the hospital staff was to join the nation-wide general strike by organized labour. The boy’s predicaments was going to be quite severe since no nurse would be available to cater for the boy’s critical needs when the ward would be shut down. Considering all that, ChariLove Home –designed to serve as the last port of hope for such children, had no choice but to offer to accept the boy to give him access, by the grace of GOD expressed through our benefactors, to the care he desperately needed. So, September 28, 2018, the boy Oshiomhole was rescued, as it were, and has since joined other orphans and children with special needs at the ChariLove Home.

May GOD help us and bless all those who care.

-Chris E. Omusi

(Coordinator-General, Project ChariLove)