Rotary Club of FESTAC Central donates to 33 Down’s Syndrome, autistic kids

ROTARY Club of FESTAC Central led by the President, Dupe Ogunsanya Lydia Atinuke, visited Oyindamola Memorial Home in the suburb of Badagry to felicitate with the 33 children.

 Inmates of home include children affected by Down’s Syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, mental retardation, short-sightedness, complete blindness among others.  

The group donated food items such as bags of rice, mattresses, mosquito nets, sanitizers, disinfectants and 8.1 KV generating set at the cost of about N500,000.00.

  Speaking at the occasion, Ogunsanya said: “We are here to felicitate with these children in the spirit of New Year in line with our commitment to make the world a better place for everyone irrespective of their condition.

“We are also considering adopting this home as a pet project where the club will come every year to impact on the home,” she said.

  Ogunsanya urged the government to pay attention to the children in the home as they do abroad.

“Government should have time for these kind of children who cannot help themselves as they pay attention to other physical things. Concern for these children should take precedence. 

“We all travel abroad and see that governments there do not joke with physically-challenged children. They also treat them with care.

“Government should learn to do good to those who would not look back to say “Thank you,” she said.

Ogunsanya enumerated other projects carried out during her tenure as giving out of  8.1 KV generating set to Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital, Oshodi, an annex to the one at Yaba, conduction of free High Blood pressure and sugar level tests in collaboration with Rotary Club of FESTAC among others. 

  She wished to be remembered as a president that touched lives and had compassion for patients with mental disorder.

 The owner of the home, Mrs. Lydia Oyindamola said the home was named after her first daughter, who fell from a three- storey building, adding that the fall later affected her brain and she was taken to Psychiatric Hospital for treatment.  She overcame it and was trained and became responsible but unfortunately, died while she was delivering her second child.

  According to her, the last child, David was also born with Down’s Syndrome, which became a reproach that affected her marriage as the boy was rejected by the family.  She suffered stigmatization and segregation.  David today, according to her, is a musician.

She explained that many of the children in the home were referred from Lagos State Social Welfare while others had their own stories:

“Abayomi was abandoned at the gate here. Taiye, Iyanu and Toyin were brought by their parents, who gave us a wrong address and they never came back and there has been no way to trace them,” she said.

She enumerated the challenges in the course of running the home as finance as she had to beg at times to feed the children and pay the staff coupled with the hostility of the people in the area who are alien to giving.   

 “There is no electricity in this community and we need light to preserve the children’s expensive drugs while we also need a bus for the children.

“All the children use diapers and we need to sanitize this place often to avoid infection,” she said.

She lamented that no aid was coming from the government and would appreciate individuals and corporate organizations that would support the home.