…As he doles out N28 million for empowerment, medical bills
Rev Fr Ejike Mbaka,the Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Nigeria (AMEN), has has disclosed that he sets aside, an average of $2 million dollars monthly, to reach out to the downtrodden in the society.
The Enugu Fiery Catholic priest made the disclosure while presenting N18.8 million bank draft to the management of Annunciation Specialist Hospital, Enugu, on behalf of Multi-Life Savers for the Less Privileged, a Non-Governmental, non-profit arm of his ministry.
This was followed by the doling out of the sum of N50 thousand and a bag of rice each to selected 200 Enugu members of the Charismatic Renewal of Nigeria.
Explaining the cash donation to the hospital, Mbaka said that the N18.8 million was to cover an accumulated free medical services that the hospital had rendered to indigent people, on his bill, amounting to over N14 million, adding that the balance was a deposit sum for other indigent patients that would require the services of the Catholic health facility in the future.
According to the vocal priest, the hospital is one of several health facilities where his foundation usually referred indigent patients to receive free qualitative medical care, to save them from dying unduly.
The priest, also took time to go round all the hospital wards and pray for every patient on admission at the time.
He said: “We are basically here to continue the relationship that this wonderful health facility has with our charity organization and Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Nigeria.
“We presented a bank draft worth N18.8 million to them to cover the accumulated bills of indigent patients they had treated at our instance, plus a deposit for other indigent patients that would come here in future.
“We do this every day and it is on record that there is no month that I don’t spend at least 2 million dollars, silently, on charity. So, this visit is just one out of several charity outings that we undertake without any publicity.
“I represent the ministry here, as the Chief Servant. What we are doing is physical but I am also here, on behalf of the supernatural part of the exercise.
“This programme is purely inter-religious, inter-tribal and interdenominational. Among the beneficiaries are Catholics, Pentecostals, and Muslims, among others.
“I do not even know the people that we have offset their medical bills but my concern is that indigent patients should not lack quality medical assistance or left to die because they lack money to go to the hospital.
“This is not the first time or the only hospital where we do this, and our charity is purely on humanitarian ground”.
while citing bible passages, the multi-talented priest cleared the air on why he sometimes sends people that were brought to him for spiritual help to the hospital.
He said that the book of Sirach chapter 38 enjoins that the sick should be taken to medical doctors for treatment because their skills came from God, and because whoever neglects medical doctors neglects God.
“So, as we heal the sick and afflicted with prayers, we also refer some cases to the hospital to for medical attention”.
Other hospitals, apart from Annunciation, where Mbaka said that he had consistently replicated such gesture include, Mother of Christ Specialist Hospital, Niger Foundation Specialist Hospital, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), ESUT Teaching Hospital, Parklane and Ntasi Obi Ndi No N’afufu Hospital, among others, all in Enugu.
“We also send patients to foreign hospitals in India and others, especially those with delicate and complex cases that require special attention, such as organ transplant.
“We are not politicians and we do not extend charity to people in order to impress anyone, to obtain favour from anybody or to be commended by anyone.
“All our charity programmes are open to people of all faith and tribe. You do not need to be a Catholic, Christian, Muslim, Igbo, or an indigene of Enugu State to benefit from our humanitarian programmes.
“This is outside our local and foreign scholarships that we offer the less privileged, which produced a qualified cardiothorancic surgeon, Chidi, just last Saturday, at an exceptional university in Russia.
“The only thing that qualified him for the scholarship was financial deficiency. His mother was poor and there was nobody to help him.
“I am saying that as long as God lives, we shall continue to do charity; it is my secret, my charm, my talisman and my power and I cannot stop it,” he said.
He called on well-to-do individuals and organisations to support Multi-Life Savers for the Less Privileged foundation to enable the outfit to extend charity to more people who are in great need in the society.
According to him, the one of the surest ways to influence God was through charity because, “when we help the less privileged, it is God that we do it for”.
In her reaction, the administrator of the hospital, Rev Sis Ifeomachukwu Onyia, thanked Fr Mbaka for his gesture and prayed God to reward him abundantly.
On his part, the National Coordinator of the foundation, Krees Chinekwe, said that the Multi-Life Savers was committed to supporting people who have various challenges but cannot help themselves, stressing that their charity covers different areas of need including education and healthcare among others.
He was accompanied to the hospital by the National Coordinator of Multi-Life Savers, Krees Chinekwe, a ranking member of the foundation and Special Adviser to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on Education, Dr Kingsley Udeh, and the Managing Director of Aqua Rapha Investment Nigeria Limited, Sunday Nwankwo, among others.
Fr. Mbaka was accompanied to the hospital by a ranking member of the foundation and Special Adviser to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on Education, Dr Kingsley Udeh, and the Managing Director of Aqua Rapha Investment Nigeria Limited, Sunday Nwankwo, among others.
