By Taiwo Oluwadare
Gold Oluranti Dada, the Chief Executive officer (CEO) and Founder of Heart of Kindness (HoK) Humanitarian International, a nongovernmental organization has given a new lease of life to school children in Makoko floating slum in Lagos State.
Life has been hellish for the people who are residents of Makoko, the infamous floating slum, as they live in little wooden shacks on stilts sit on top of dark water.
Many of these people were displaced or evicted from their former homes and found this place as no alternative abode where poverty is endemic.
These residents plight is not limited to lack of social amenities but lack of educational facilities as the pupils seat on a bare floor to learn with leaking roof which soaks the school children and their books.
These people seem to have been neglected by the government, leave them to live in abject poverty and their untidy environment makes them exposed to all forms of diseases.
The water the residents dwell in is full of household rubbish, including needles and human faeces and there is a suffocating smell of rotten fish hanging in the air.
The officials of HoK as their name implies showed its heart of kindness to these people as they came into this community on canoes to provide educational incentives for the school children living in the slum.
Speaking to our correspondent, Mrs. Oluranti said the gesture towards the children is to end child poverty.
According to her, the organization heard the distress call from children in the community that they were learning under the rains and they intervened.
She said: “We learnt that the children were going through hardship of learning amid poverty. We came into the community to intervene, we renovated the classrooms, provided them with learning materials and good learning environment.
“We also aim at sponsoring them on scholarship programmes so they won’t be denied good education because of their poor background.
“On good health delivery, HoK deploys personnel to provide drugs and free treatment to communities with people who cannot afford good healthcare.
“We are in habit of reaching out to communities all over the world to help the poor and needy. We believe that touching the needy with kindness regardless of age, ethnicity or religion will make the world a better place for all.
“My service to my people is part of the discipline to which I subject myself to in order to free my soul from the bonds of the flesh. For me, the path of salvation leads through the unceasing tribulation in the service of my fellow countrymen and humanity.
Hearts of Kindness Humanitarian Foundation has become a rock of Gibraltar . It has come to stay through the determined efforts of mine as supported by God and people of like minds. I appreciate God who has endowed me with humane nature which spurred me with the preoccupation of scouting for the less fortunate and putting into their mouths cold water to cool their nerves sequel to the vicissitudes of life”, she stated.
Heart of Kindness (HoK) international is an accredited humanitarian organisation based in Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland with a vision to scale all racial, ethnic and geographical barriers to impact the lives of the downtrodden and less privileged in various communities all over the world.
Click HERE to contact Heart of Kindness (HoK) International and to read more about them.
