The Ilupeju Central Community Development Association (CDA) in Odi-Olowo/Ojuwoye Local Council Development Area of Lagos has distributed palliatives to over 200 residents.
Its Chairman, Mr. Kole Abe, in an interview with The Nation, said the gesture was to complement the efforts of the Lagos State Government and Odi-Olowo/Ojuwoye LCDA.
Abe stated that the bulk of the food items distributed came from the local government.
He said the CDA decided to add to the items to reach a larger number of beneficiaries.
He said: “The local government gave out foodstuff to all the CDAs for the most vulnerable people in our communities. But every CDA is peculiar; in our CDA, we went around, we went around street by street, house by house and took a censor. We found out that there were a lot more people that deserved it. So we decided to be a bit creative. We increased the quantities within ourselves to cater for the extra and break them down into quantities. We went beyond the prescribed 75 people to over 200 people.”
Abe, who was recently sworn in as the CDA chairman, and received certificate from Chairman of the council Rasaq Ajala, said it was wrong to assume that some people don’t deserve palliative because they live in “rich areas.”
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“It is very wrong because food and hunger are very universal. That’s one thing I found out from going on the streets. I went on the streets and interviewed people. We took their names, their phone numbers ahead of time. This is about a month before the distribution.
“We talked to them and asked of their challenges and needs. Some of them thought we were going to give them a loan. For instance you have drivers who can’t feed their family members. We have a lot of people who are doing nothing and are just hungry every day. So we had a mix of that and of course, there are a lot of the privileged people who would also bring out their dependents. So they will tell us to take care of their family members or domestic helps because they have a lot of people depending on them. So some people generally need a little bit of help. The process of giving was very rewarding,” he said.