Foundation Grants Cash Award To Nonagenarians

The O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation has granted a cash award of N250,000 each to seven nonagenarians who also received portraits of themselves and certificates.

The foundation, under its Care for Life Programme, gave the cash at its annual New Year Party for nonagenarians in Abonnema, Rivers State, on January 1.

The event featured praise and worship, dancing, and a cash award of N250,000 each to seven nonagenarians who also received portraits of themselves and certificates, gifts for others and lots to eat and drink.

The joyful senior citizens, attired in beautiful Kalabari clothes, had the time of their lives at the event, affirming the Foundation’s commitment to total care for older people.

In her welcome remarks at the occasion attended by partners including the Federation of Women Lawyers, the African Women Lawyers Association, and Old Port Harcourt City Association of Friends, chairman of the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation, Dr Seinye O.B. Lulu-Briggs, expressed delight at hosting the elders again this year.

She explained that the New Year Party is special because it reminds her of how the Foundation started 22 years ago, focusing on senior citizens.

She said: “Back then, elders in our community were practically invisible, especially those who could no longer fend for themselves and did not have children or relatives who could do so. Elder abuse was frequently reported in the news. The O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation began its operations by identifying and caring for such elders through our ‘Care for Life Programme’ 22 years ago.”

Dr Lulu-Briggs added that, since then, the Care for Life Programme has “provided over 600 elders from 12 Local Government Areas of Rivers State with healthcare, caregivers, monthly food supplies/or a daily feeding programme that includes lunch and dinner, monthly hygiene and essential household supplies, monthly cash stipends, housing, clothing, and spiritual care. It has also organized social events like today’s New Year party. We care for 87 elders in Abua, Akuku-Toru, Asari-Toru, Degema, Etche, and Port Harcourt local government areas.”

The foundation’s chairman further noted that apart from taking care of the senior citizen’s spiritual and material needs, the New Year party demonstrated its value in “fostering a sense of fellowship and belonging amongst the aged members of our communities by honouring and celebrating them as often as we can.”

Dr Lulu-Briggs, who thanked God for the lives of the elders and for sustaining the Foundation’s impactful works, assured partners of its commitment to improving the lots of the underserved.

“In this New Year season, we want to assure our partners that our sense of solidarity with our target group- the under-served- remains strong, and we will strive to do more for greater transformation in our communities in the coming months,” she said.

The chairman went on to disclose that its purpose-built Biokpo Recreational Centre for the Elderly, opened in 2007 for lonely and isolated elders to mingle and socialize and receive spiritual guidance, meals and medical attention but closed in 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic has been reopened.

Dr Lulu-Briggs announced that the Foundation has instituted a congratulatory award of the N250,000 which would be given annually to elders under its care who become nonagenarians (attain the age of 90).

She thanked all staff, volunteers, partners and evangelists who support the Foundation in caring for the elders while reiterating that the “ overall goal of the Care for Life Programme is to ensure that at the end of their time on earth, our elders will be able to say, ‘Of a truth, there is a God in Zion whose saving grace has rescued my soul, and I am not afraid to meet with Him.”

The seven recipients of the N250,000 cash congratulatory award were Ma Rhoda Briggs (104) who got a special round of applause as the only centenarian, Pa Benjamin Yousouf (99), Ma Basoene Walter (98) and Ma Ibingibo Douglas (98). The others were; Ma Settle Georgewill (96), Pa Alioma Romeo (95) and Pa Emmanuel Joe Briggs (92).

Through the Care for Life Programme, the O.B. Lulu-Briggs Foundation cares for the health, economic and social well-being of vulnerable older people in Rivers State. It covers all their medical costs, provides caregivers to look after them, and gives them food, household supplies and a monthly cash allowance.

The non-partisan Foundation’s other programmes are; Free Medical Missions, Access to Clean Water and Sanitation, Education and Scholarships, and Microcredit and Entrepreneurship.