By Emmanuel Una
TWO Compassionate Reverend Sisters of the Catholic Church, Calabar, Cross River State, simply identified as Bridget and Onuigbo, have linked agriculture to their ecclesiastical work to raise supplemental funds to feed the elderly and homeless at Pope John Paul’s Home of the Good Samaritan II, a Catholic facility, which they oversee.
They grow yams, cassava, coconut-yams and vegetables and harvest in due time to feed about 25 people, mainly elderly and needy people who can no longer feed themselves at the house located on Target Street, off Mary Slessor Avenue.
The home has been affected by shortages of food and other supplies for some years now, as donations from kind-hearted people were no longer enough to care for the inmates, so the Reverend Sisters thought of a way out.
It was learned that a thief, suspected of being one of the intruders who come to the house to eat from the sisters’ work, broke into the farm last year and took yam tubers.
We share our time between the chapel and the farm – Rev. Sister Bridget
NDV visited the home and was greeted by the Rev. Sister Bridget, who said they share their time between going to the chapel to pray and going to the farm every day except Sunday.
“Today is Saturday, we leave the farm to the chapel for the noon prayers before you come and later in the evening, we will go to the farm before retiring for the day.
“The church is doing its best, but our main supporters are members of the public and organizations. As the support does not arrive sometimes, we have to cultivate and the harvest from our farm is most of the time quite useful ”, he added.
He confirmed that they grow crops such as yams, cassava, coconut-yams and vegetables.
How the suspect was caught
On the alleged invasion of the farm by thieves last year, Reverend Sister Bridget revealed: “The suspect is one of the people who usually come here to eat and we don’t know what happened to him and he came to steal our yams, which is pretty unfortunate. “
She said the suspected thief was chased by some passersby and ran into the wildlife park, but was identified before he escaped into the forest around the Calabar Zoo.
“Some people come from outside during our meals to feed themselves. Those are not regular inmates, but come during meals. We have many like that, but he chose to come and steal. Since then, he stopped coming here; maybe his conscience is pricking him, ”he added.
Why do children, family members drive away the old
He said many of the inmates were either abandoned by families and brought in by members of the public or an alert is sent and someone is sent to pick up that person.
His words: “Some people, when they are virile and well placed, do not take care of their children or family members, and therefore, when they grow old and cannot fend for themselves, they are generally expelled by the family, but not we can allow them to continue. the streets, we collect them. “
He stated that the elders at the scene were not restricted to just Catholics but from all denominations, adding: “The only job they do now is pray as they are very close to their terminal end.”
