Knights of St Mulumba float foundation, donate food items to needy
Knights of St Mulumba float foundation, donate food items to needy
Knights of Saint Molumba(KSM), Catholic of Nigeria, Lagos Metropolitan on Saturday launched a foundation called ‘Feed the Hungry Charity Apostolate’ aimed at alleviating the sufferings of poor members of the church.
The new charity program that kicked off in the whole Lagos Catholic Diocese, that of Ejigbo Sub-Council is organised by the Knights and Ladies in Catholic church within the Lagos Metropolitan parishes
The new project which kicked off for Ejigbo Sub-Council at the Catholic Church of the Annunciation, Orioke ejigbo, was organised by the Knights and Ladies in Catholic church within the Lagos Archdiocesan Metropolitan See.
This charity gesture is targeted at parishioners who have been identified as incapable to fend for themselves and those dubbed as poor in the churches.
The gestures according to the organisers, is to impact on the beneficiaries and to give them a sense of belonging for them to know that they are not forgotten by the elites or rich members of the church.
Speaking on the development, Sir Cyril Elele, Grand Knight of Knight of Mulumba, Ejigbo Sub-Council said the Lenten period is a time to show love, give alms and pray, hence the necessity to impact on parishioners by donating food items to them especially at the critical state of the country.
According to him, the move is to provide succour to the parishioners of the Ejigbo Sub-Council as a take off and awareness campaign for this concept.
Some of the items given out during the program include; tubers of yam, bags of rice, beans, sachets of tomatoes paste, sachets of salt and packets of noddles.
About 100 parishioners were targeted in the maiden edition of the program which he said was a successful outing even as he added that it will subsequently be carried out quarterly.
His words, “This is Lenten period and the Hallmark of lent according to the Catholic Church are prayers, fasting and almsgiving. So, we have chosen a day like this to make an impact on the parishioners of this Church
“The bible says the poor will always be in our midst so we decided to reach out to them to give them assistance.
.so what we are doing really is to ask the society of this church called Saint Vincent de Paul Society whose major responsibility is to assist the poor among us.
“So, they have the data bank of the poor in this parish and it is from the list that we are reaching out to them today.
“What we are doing today is to provide succour by giving them food items like bags of rice, beans, tubers of yam, sachet of salt, sachets of tomatoes paste sachets and noodles. It is not peculiar to this Sub-Council. It involves all the Sub-Councils in Lagos Metropolitan Council.
“Today is actually the launch of ‘Feed the Hungry Charity Apostolate. That is actually the title of the project.
“By God’s grace, subsequently, it is going to be quarterly and we will be targeting about 250 to 300 persons per quarter but because today is the first day, we are starting with about 100 persons, that has also informed our consideration for publicity to inform people of what we have come to do.
“The funds came from members of the knights who made contributions among themselves,”
Also speaking, Lady Ruth Akamnonu, President, Ladies, Knights of Saint Mulumba, Ejigbo Sub-Council who said that it was a way of having a little touch on the poor in the church.
She quipped that it would also make the poor know that some people care for them.
She added that the program will be holding in the 29 Sub-Councils in the Lagos Metropolitan, KSM.
“The Knights and Ladies of Saint Mulumba have decided to go into a little touch of lives because we know that a lot of people are hungry even among us.
“The reason is for the needy among us to know that some people care for them and this program is organised by Lagos Metro KSM and it is going on in all our 29 Sub-Councils.
“We know that the country is tough and a lot of people are dying in silence and we decided that we should give it a trial and this is the launch.
“I feel a bit fulfilled because I know that this will go a long way for the beneficiaries even if it is two or three days, they will know that somebody remembered them.
Sir Dele Ogunmekun, Supreme Secretary of Saint Mulumba, Nigeria maintained that the Feed The Hungry Apostolate is a concept of the current Metropolitan Grand Knight who he said was a new person bringing his own concept.
He explained that Knights have always been seen as elitists and rich, hence the need to have a direct impact on the lives of the poor parishioners without having to go through the church or a third party.
Ogunmekun stated that, “The rationale behind the Feed The Hungry Apostolate is a concept of our current Metropolitan Grand Knight, John Eze. He is a new person and is bringing in his own concept from his own perspective.
“It is about how the Knight can reach the downtrodden directly without having to go through the church or any society.
“The Knights are often assumed as elitists or the rich. The issue then becomes, if you are a rich man, how do you get down to the poor. He now said we should organise to reach the poor parish by parish our target is quarterly.
Worthy brother Odinaka Iwu, Deputy Grand Knight of Ejigbo Sub-Council and Chairman, Feed the Hungry Charity Apostolate submitted that the funds were provided by the knights and other senior brothers in the order.
He lauded the organisers for their commitment even as he described the program as a successful one saying the attendance was encouraging and beneficiaries happy.
He said, “The provision was made by the knights and other senior brothers in the order. It has been a successful program being the inaugural program but we thank God that the attendance was encouraging, all the beneficiaries are happy, and all left back home smiling.
“We are grateful to God for giving us a wonderful outing
“For us the Knights and Ladies in particular, giving to the poor, charity work is our everyday joy because our duty as knights demands our time, talent and treasure
“Charity is the Hallmark of knighthood, charity is a cardinal pillar of our doctrinal princples. What we have done is not extra ordinary just that this time around, we came together and we are trying to create a new ministry in the church and what we have done today is launching of an apostolate ministry. It is like a new department.”
An aged woman who was among the beneficiaries expressed delight that she benefitted from this gesture.
According to here, when she left her home for the church that morning, she never believed she would go home with such large quantity of food items.
She gave God glory and thanked the knights and ladies for remembering them especially at this lent period.
