When we give cheerfully and receive gratefully, everyone is blessed”. Maya Angelou
History has set aside the fourteenth day of the month of February for the celebration of love. The celebration follows with lovers wearing colorful dresses of red and white which today is a cultural antique, some persons take to visiting beautiful places with family and friends most especially for sight-seeing but the most beautiful of all place to visit in a day like this is where the children who has lost their parents due to political insurgency resides. There are some men and women who has turned out to be a widow and a widower as the case may be, they are heart broken and sad, although they lay their head when it is night but they do not have homes. A number of them can be found nurturing suicidal and other scary thoughts they are regarded as the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). Spending a day with these people, putting a smile on their faces can go a long way in making them find hope and love again. I had made it known last week that I would be visiting this place to show love to these people and I reached out for support and I want to thank everyone who showed up to support in their little way, special regard to for the support shown. And to my friends Ceaser and Glory for accompanying me to this place, without them it probably wouldn't have been possible.
Ceaser the one with the beards and Glory the one with the big smile, their accounts are yet to be confirmed, so watch out for them ☺
I opt for visiting these people to express the feeling of love in the best way I can, after all this is a season of love it would bring a great pleasure fulfilling the reason for the season. I had never visited the IDP camp before my last post on the VISITING IDP CAMP so I had little knowledge on where I could possibly find them but thanks to the online geographical system working in our country Nigeria. After a thorough search I got a location at IDP Camp, Durumi, Area One Abuja. Then again I tried to fix a puzzle of what could be given as gift to these people, I had made a list of some necessary things that we all need in our homes to get comfort, I thought for a second that an hungry man is not usually seen having a good sleep, he always sleeps half way and then wakes up to the feeling of hunger in his stomach. If I truly care for the comfort of these people, I will have to provide some food items for them which they can add to whatever it is that they are left with after the insurgency.
items purchased
Making a list was not the end, I also had to go shopping, and lay my hands in what I can find in the market, well it wasn’t an easy task but with the help gotten from friends it turned out to be quite a funny experience. Dutse market at Abuja was able to provide us with the necessary things that we had on our list, ranging from bags of rice, cartoon of indomie noodles, necessary cooking items and some snacks for the kids we packed up what we had bought, and there we were set to visit the IDP Camp, Durumi Area One Abuja.
I think we just gave him the best sale ever, he had to bring out the calculator as well me ☺
We were welcomed by the secretary at the IDP Camp Mr Yusuf who was very excited and he acknowledge our visit.
The children were very happy too as they wore big smiles on their faces, and on the sight of our car, they ran towards us with joy, this could only explain the enthusiasm they had knowing they had a visitor and I believe they will never get bored if we kept visiting all the time. They gave me a dainty feeling which dared me to agitate my readers in lending a helping hand to the needy around us.
It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” Mother T-eresa.
They were nursing mothers, pregnant women, who came out with joy, all they kept saying was ‘’Na gode” “Na gode” which means thank you. Every face I saw was with a smile, I was overwhelmed at the impact I had made with the little I had brought for them.
Here I was addressing the women and children while my friend Ceased had to interpret for me in Hausa as most of them only hear and speak Hausa
Today was sure going to be a memorable day for me for the rest for my life and I would always love to look back at this day so I took photos with the children and parents, you can find the photos attached to this article and you can see the smile on their faces, it brought me the best feeling I could ever pray for.
I knew bidding these children goodbye was going to be a difficult thing for me as I was getting to love the moment I shared with them and they also was catching fun as they introduced me into different games that they play when they feel bored. It was a challenge to communicate with them but a friend of mine who spoke Hausa fluently was there to ease the language barrier.
Time soon came and I needed to return home, they bid me goodbye happily and I also did. On arriving home I could not seize from thinking about the event that had taken place today as I also told the story, visiting the IDP Camp was something I would love to do over and over again as I see it as a means of expressing love, the greatest and most powerful feeling ever felt by man.
We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. Winston S. Churchill
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