•Rosemarie Eno-Mark Photo: Sun News Publishing

Woman of the Sun Index

Rosemarie Eno-Mark, wife of the Senate president, David Mark, is a medical doctor with a passion. With 30 years experience as a physician in ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) her other assignment at work is to counsel her patients. It was actually from her counseling table that she got an inkling of the things affecting Nigerians, especially those in the low income cadre.

This therefore, gingered her to set up a charity organization called the Voluntary Primitive Intervention (VPI) established to support and assist the National Health sector through organized practical health assistance programs.

With her present status, you probably would have expected to see her do her secular job and relax, feeling good as wife of the No 3 man in the country. But the reverse is the case as she has started embarking on trips through all the states of the federation.

Now you want to know what inspired her to go into this and she replies: "That is simply my nature. What I do as a medical doctor is that I counsel people and when you tell people to be positive about their lives, you have to be positive too. So, this is all about life. You experience what you regard as good and you experience what you regard as bad. It’s all part of life".
Two years ago, Mark was almost killed in an accident. "I believed from that point that there is something I must do to give back to the life that has been given to me by almighty God."

One of the aims of the initiative is to support her husband and other senators. " When you are a politician and you win an election, there is a time for settling down and now is the time to do the job that you are in. So, in essence, one of the aims is frankly to support, with the help of other senators’ wives and to give something in the interim while waiting for the bigger things that are coming.

"Help for the society and the less privileged ones comes in different ways. One of this is to buy drugs and take it to motherless babies home. When I was in Lagos, I devoted my time at least once a month to visit motherless babies home. I devoted my time and ran a free clinic for all the construction workers and their families when we were building our mission on Grail Land. We are offering services to humanity. I actually feel you either have it in your nature to give or you don’t. That has been part and parcel of me. As I have grown older and now that my children are all grown, I just felt it is natural for me to go about reaching out because I believe the Lord has been very good to me".

She also talks about Mrs. Turai Yar’Adua and her pet project, which has to do with newborn babies.. "I also thought is was really a brilliant opportunity for doctors and other professional in the medical team to support the first lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If we use all the manpower in terms of the midwives, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, ophthalmologists, pediatricians and medical scientists, her project would be successful".

As a good wife, Mark started from Benue State and she tells you why. "This is my husband’s state while my state, Edo, will be the last on the list.".

She continues: "I have actually been invited by some of the youths to give talks. In addition, we have a team talking to the youths on how to structure their lives. This is very important because they are our future and the talks will center on ensuring that their future is structured properly. Then we are going to offer and give free treatment using the manpower on the ground. Finally we are going to screen for all kinds of diseases".

What are the challenges she faces in life? "Every one who knows me knows that I don’t see problems. Rather I see life as experiences and once you see life as experiences, you just believe that the Almighty God who put that experience your way had put a solution to it. I believe that what is meant to be will be. I take each day prayerfully as it comes. If I find that what I planned is changing I just go with the flow."
For her dedication to this cause, Mark won an award recently in Dublin. " I have been helping Nigerians there to bring out the best in them and be good ambassadors of the country".