By Bianca Iboma

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Inmates of So-Said and Save Our Soul Orphanages, Lagos, recently had cause to be happy, as a group brought smiles to their faces. Members of Balogun Business Association (BBA) at the International Trade Fair Complex, Badagry Expressway, Lagos, donated food items and toiletries worth over N200,000.
Keepers of the home said that the gesture came at the right time. Not very many people today go around to celebrate with the less-privileged and the physically-challenged, but not BBA, which said the gesture was intended to be its contribution towards improving the society by impacting positively on people. Presenting the items to the homes, chairman of the traders’ committee on charity, Mr. Joealin Okonkwo, said the gesture was aimed at assisting the needy and less privileged in the society in line with members’ Christian beliefs.
“Members of the association have been involved in charitable donations, but this year, we chose to do it in a very special way,” he noted.
President of the association, Mr. Ernest Obi-Odunukue, said people were remembered after they must have passed on, not because of the trillions of naira they amassed, fleet of cars or mansions they acquired but because of how many fellow humans they mentored, touched, impacted on with their lives, changes and positive differences they made in other peoples’ lives.”
He asked, “How much of our brother’s and sister’s keepers are we? How many tears have we wiped away and how many of such tears have we replaced with smiles? These are some of the pertinent questions we should ask ourselves in our quiet and sober moments, as we sojourn on this planet.”
The General Matron of So-Said Homes, Mrs. Gift Abudu, expressed gratitude to the traders, even as she urged members of the society to emulate the gesture.
She called on people who had been blessed by God to remember the motherless and the less privileged in the society and share with them some of the blessings God had given to them in these hard times. She commended the traders for their initiative and desire to put smiles on the faces of the downtrodden.
Also, the central store controller at the Save Our Soul Orphanage, Mr. Agbaegbu Lawrence, called on corporate organisations and wealthy Nigerians to emulate the efforts of the traders and support charitable works. He urged the association to continue to put smiles on the faces of orphans and other inmates across the country.