Luth-Fulah visits hospitals, prison in Lagos, disburses N1.5m zakat to patients, inmates

• Pupils in Ajegunle get teaching materials from THF

To bring succor to Nigerians in need, a faith-based organization, Luth- Fulah International has embarked on humanitarian visits to hospitals and prison yards in Lagos. Its mission is to distribute the yearly zakat donation among the patients in the hospitals and inmates of the prison yards visited.

For the exercise this year, it involved disbursement of a total of N1.5 million worth of medical materials among the beneficiaries.The beneficiaries are: Federal Neuro Psychatric hospital; National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi, Yaba; Gbagada General Hospital; Ikeja General Hospital; and Ikoyi Prison.

Chairman, Zakat Committee of Luth-Fullah International, Alhaji Egbeyemi Sultan, said the humanitarian visit is part of the organization’s benevolent act every year to donate to patients and augment the hospital expenses.

“One of the advantages of Zakat is that it enables equal distribution of wealth. Apart from this, it also creates wealth. In a society where there is crime, there is no equal distribution of wealth. Therefore, one of the ways of balancing this is through the payment of zakat where we take from the rich and give to the poor and it is being done here by the foundation.”

Sultan commended the workers at the hospital, saying: “We are proud to be here because we can see the services you are rendering. Majorly everybody out there have one problem or the other, which they are not aware of. We really appreciate the service you are rendering to people that is why we have come to contribute our little quota.”

He urged the management of the hospitals not to relent on their effort.“What you are doing is a fantastic job because we know it is difficult to get subvention from government and you have to deliver. We really appreciate what you are doing,” he said.

The Medical Director of Federal Neuro Psychiatric hospital, Lagos, Dr. Oluwayemi Ogun commended the kind gesture of the organization. She assured that the fund would be used judiciously to the benefit of the patients.

She said so many religious organisations have been helpful because the hospital cannot do it alone, so it depends so much on this kind of donations.“I wish to thank this association for all its support to the hospital. This is not the first or second time we are receiving wonderful gifts from you people, I must say that we are very grateful.

“Every year Ramadan a family use to donate a cow for the hospital and our patients are always looking forward to it. We are always happy to see people who want to identify with us, we are stigmatize due to mental medical issues and mentally challenge people we treat here,” she said.

Meanwhile, a non-governmental organization, The Help Foundation has provided educational materials for children in Ajegunle area of Lagos through volunteer teachers.

The organization donated education items, which ranged from school bags, books, pencils and such freebies as snacks, cocktails among others to the children.

Director of The Help Foundation (THF), Opere Rashidat, a finalist of Biology Education, Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, UNILAG, described the gesture as a demonstration of the foundation’s resolve to support less privileged children to achieve their potentials in life.

She noted that every child deserves access to quality education saying children must be accorded adequate attention in order to impart positively on the society in the future.

Opere urged the pupils to maximize their time and be dedicated to their academics in order to become good leaders in the future.She called on government to adequately cater for education during the appropriation of the national budget in order to cushion the deficits in the nation’s education sector.

The Director also called on the state government and local government to provide for education needs of children in rural areas, particularly the slums in the state.

Director of Dreams From The Slum, Isaac Omoleye and the proprietor of the school, Mrs. Comfort Ogar and the elated pupils in there hundreds in turn churned cheers to the visitors.

Omoleye, while giving a remark on the visit of the foundation, expressed gratitude for the kind gesture.He assured that his organization and the school would work together with THF with a view to bringing good education to needy school children in the slums.