Benola Celebrates Fifth Anniversary

Some management and staff of Benola Cerebral Palsy Initiative with those from Modupe Cole Home for the disabled and physically and mentally challenged children and adults with the inates of the home, during the donation, recently.

…Donates Wheelchairs, Crutches To Modupe Cole

Chioma Umeha

 Help came the way of some inmates of Modupe Cole Home for the disabled and physically and mentally challenged children and adults as Benola Cerebral Palsy Initiative presented them with wheelchairs, crutches, and walking aid at the tune of the N1.8 million.

Making the presentation which was to mark the  fifth anniversary of the Benola, AVM Femi Gbadebo, the  Founder, said his organisation had taken up the challenge of visiting homes for the abandoned and disabled children on a regular basis.

Mr. Gbadebo called on the government to support its advocacy campaign stressed on the need to tackle stigma against persons living with disabilities.

He said; “Without eliminating stigma attached to disabilities, particularly the childhood variant, most parents will continue to either live in denial or hide their children.”

He decried the activities of  fakers who claim that there is cure for cerebral palsy and lamented that some ignorant parents fall prey to them.

Mr. Gbadebo said; “A lot of damage is also being done by the numerous charlatans who go about promoting miracle cures with the resultant effect that parents waste money that could’ve been better utilised and when their expectations are not realised, depression sets in.”

Emphasising on the need for more collaboration on awareness about CP, he said; “Various information organs of government like the Ministry of information, Voice of Nigeria, NBC, National Orientation Agency etc and private sector should get involved.

According to him, this should come in form of sponsorship of advocacy campaigns, support to families in terms medication, covering the cost of treatment/therapy as well as provision of drugs and assisted devices.

“Families need to get more involved in the advocacy campaign, joining family support groups and sharing their true life experiences; Adults living with CP and other disabilities should also get involved with advocacy and readily share their stories.”

However, he explained that Modupe Cole was selected for this particular visit because of its size, number of residents; the dual nature – home and school; and  having large number of persons living with CP.

“These reason led us to choose Modupe Cole as venue for our first official visit on First Benola Day to mark Olaoluwa’s Birthday on  June 14,  2013. Since then we’ve made several visits at various times of the year to make donations and meet with their vibrant PTA.”

Corroborating earlier views, Mrs. Alaba Gbadebo, said; “We chose Modupe Cole Home for the donations of wheelchairs and other assistive devices to mark Benolas fifth anniversary because the home has a  lot of Cerebral palsy cases and are in dire need  of these things. The home has over 300 Adults and children.”

Giving details of the donation, Mrs. Gbadebo said this include, 10 wheelchairs, each two representing one year of Benola; eight crutches and  eight walking sticks were presented to Modupe Cole Home School.

Responding the Benola’s plans for the future; She said; “Our next focus now is to raise money and awareness for our  Cerebral palsy family forum in August where we intend to give out 100 wheelchairs and lots of adult and children diapers.

She further observed; “We realised the great need in these areas at our family forum held at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idiaraba, last year when over 450 parents and Children with  CP showed  up and we only gave out 21wheelchairs. We then realised that the need is enormous.