The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes
…By Eddie Onuzurike…
The above words by Shakespeare have been time tested and used by generations for ages and proven right in many circumstances as it is playing out in Abia presently.
There is no doubt that Chief Mrs. Odochi Orji adds value to her name daily through her deeds. In August 2013, a categorized aggregate involving indigent widows, unemployed youths the vulnerable groups gathered in Umuahia Township Stadium and received the following live-improving items. 227 sewing machines, 198 generating sets, 158 barbing kits, 94 hair dressing dryers, 40 grinding machines, 32 desktop computers, 20 looms and 3 vulcanizing machines. Before this event, 300 female youthful Abians were grouped in the 3 Senatorial Zones. It began in February 2013, when these groups were set aside for structured training in multiple skills ranging from computer operation, hotel management, hairdressing, fisheries, poultry fashion designing, beauty therapy to interior decoration.
This seeming 300 club of female youths benefitted immensely from our first Lady who for the love of her girls went into synergy with Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme SURE-P. For ease of operation and convenience of the attendees, these lucky female youths had their instructional bases in three distinct points in the 3 senatorial zones of Abia. The Central Senatorial Zone was interned in the famous Skill Acquisition Centre in Ogurube layout opposite the Nnamdi Azikiwe Secretariat, beside the Central Bank. Aba hosted those in Abia South Senatorial Zone while Arochukwu L.G.A was the base for North.
For six solid months, these beautiful damsels were made ready as active and productive members of their different communities, skilled and thus able to file into all strata of society as wives, teachers, mothers, employers and most of all, bread winners. Instructively, they were trained free of charge and were paid 10,000 naira monthly as stipends. At the end of their training, they were assisted with places to have their industrial attachment in the bid to acquire more experience and practice what they were taught.
On the final graduation, they were gathered at the playground of the center and were generously bequeathed with take home gadgets and equipment to file out, work and live from these different skills. There were unprecedented quantum paraphernalia and gadgets for operation. Those in computer appreciation received full set of computers including UPS and generating sets while the caterers took home gas cookers, gas cylinders and pots of various sizes. The hair dressers got dryers, gen sets and all hair dressing apparatus. Many of the trainees never believed it could happen and were taken unawares, not actually knowing how to cart home their largess. Besides, they were given tips on how to be good wives, morally upright citizens and achieving members of the society. It was made more interesting when they received envelopes containing thirty thousand naira each. This is unprecedented. As the ovation was still loud for Her Excellency, another set of people got extremely lucky.
Can any living person forget where a lost limb was replaced? These were amputees who have lost their limbs in many different and harrowing encounters and have made do with crutches and other crude contraptions.
Through another synergy of our tenacious lady with an Indian outfit, they have regained their limbs by way of artificial limbs or prosthesis. These were freely given, irrespective of gender, tribe and tongue to all in Abia.
The profiled above are only recent. It has been a trail of such charitable deeds ranging from building houses, paying hospital bills, settling family feuds and elevating family values as reflected by the dress code of her henchwomen, The Osinulo Ladies.
As spotted in late MKO Abiola’s aphorisms, the hand that giveth is always on top. The holy bible in Acts chapter 20; 35 concurs, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ It is equally manifest in Igbo cosmology that there is magic in the name. Chief Mercy Odochi Orji, Georgia Woman of Valour, has lived the full meaning of her name being highly merciful and boundlessly charitable.
Nigerian and Abia ladies, emulate these acts of corporal mercy so that the world will be a better place.