A group photograph with the inmates and a delegation of Rivers NUJ Correspondents’ Chapel led by Amaechi Okonkwo, Chairman and Ignatius Chukwu, Chairman, Chapel Week Organizing Committee, and members of Chapel,Sir Okafor Ofiebor, Emmanuel One, Clarice Azuatalam and Desmond Ejebas
Rivers NUJ Correspondents’ 2023 Week: Port Harcourt Orphanage Comences Vocational Programmes
*Seeks support from govt, others
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Priesthood Holy Charity Home, an orphanage at Elelenwo in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has commenced vocational training programs that will equip inmates of the home with lifelong skills that will support them when they eventually leave the orphanage.
Pastor Henry Echenwo of the orphanage disclosed this when members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Rivers State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) visited the home on Thursday as part of the 2023 Correspondent’s Week.
Echenwo said the skills acquisition programmes were introduced this year to add value to the educational objectives of the orphanage beyond just being custodians of the motherless babies that the home caters for. He added that four kids from the home were in tertiary institutions.
He listed the skills being taught the inmates to include, fashion designing, confectionery, catering and shoemaking. While expressing delight that some corporate organisations have shown interest in what the kids were doing, he called for interventions from government and public-spirited individuals and organisations to support what the home was doing.
The Chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Comrade Amaechi Okonkwo, said the chapel had adopted the orphanage for support during its annual Corespondents’ Week activities and that the visit was the fourth the chapel has made in the last four years.
He praised the visioners of the charity home for what they are doing to help helpless children of the society get a living that their parents couldn’t avail them.
Okonkwo said the 2023 theme of the Correspondents’ Chapel week aligned with the vocational Programmes of the charity home, which seeks to make Rivers State healthy for investments.
He, therefore, called on the state government and other stakeholders to help bring about peace and friendliness that will make the state receptive to investments and prosperity.
Pastor Echenwo later on took members of the Correspondents’ Chapel on a facility tour of the vocational stands of the charity home.
The inmates offered prayers for all members of the Rivers Correspondent’s Chapel for annually remembering them during them during their Week.