To help communities in Anambra and Delta states recover from the devastating flood that displaced thousands of people, the Coca-Cola Foundation and Whitefield Foundation have donated $175,000 to fund the distribution of relief materials.
The Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) also provided dietary assistance, including 120,000 bottles of water and juice.
Funmi Johnson, the chief executive officer of Whitefield Foundation, stated in a press release that the devastating floods recorded across the 36 states, resulting in fatalities, population displacement, and extensive destruction of homes, farms, and infrastructure, have made humanitarian interventions to these victims necessary.
Johnson explained that her foundation has mapped out the programme to address the needs of affected communities in Delta and the Anambra states.
“within the next three months, we would visit communities in Anambra State such as Ayamelum Local Government Area (LGA), Ogbaru LGA, Umueri Anambra East LGA, Anambra East LGA, Anambra West LGA and for Delta state, we should reach out to Isoko South LGA and Ughelli South LGA,” she said.
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The CEO said that the interventions will focus on providing immediate food and healthcare assistance to 5,000 households and implement a series of mitigating measures to reduce the risk of disease spread in communities, adding that, participants would be counselled to guard against becoming victims of gender-based violence under similar circumstances in the future.
In his response, the deputy governor, of Anambra state, Dr Onyeka Ibezima, expressed gratitude for the foundations’ timely intervention and urged the beneficiaries to utilise the opportunity maximally.
“On behalf of the Anambra state government, I would like to register our gratitude to the Coca-Cola Foundation, Nigerian Bottling Company and the Whitefield Foundation for identifying with our people during this trying period. I also urge the people to try and make the most of the intervention, particularly the counselling and agricultural seedlings which cannot be quantified in monetary terms,” he averred.
He maintained that the food and medicaments would be depleted but knowledge impacted via counselling would live forever with the beneficiaries.
This story was adapted from Leadership.
