The Living Faith Church Worldwide also known as Winners’ Chapel is set to donate items worth millions of naira to Ogun and Lagos State governments to assist in the fight against coronavirus.
The chairman of the editorial and media board of the church, Prof. Sherif Folarin made this known to our correspondent this morning in a telephone chat.
He said the church took delivery of the items at about 11 pm on Monday March 30 and will donate them to the Ogun and Lagos governments in the next couple of days
The items according to him include two (2) state-of-the-art ambulances with capacity for first aid, test and treatment of those infected or on emergency resulting from the infection.
Each of the ambulances will be donated to Lagos and Ogun states, to boost the disease control measures and treatment.
Other items include twenty (20) cartons of latex hand gloves (10 boxes per carton), ten (10) cartons of disposable face masks (40 boxes per carton), forty (40) pieces of infrared thermometer (gun-shaped type), 500 pieces of personal protective device (PPE) Hazmat suit, two (2) boxes of pulse oximeter (10 per box) and two (2) cartons of blood pressure monitor (10 per carton).
The church also took delivery of food items, which are meant for immediate distribution as palliatives to the less privileged who are likely to be the worst hit by the lockdown. These are 400 bags of rice, 150 bags of beans, 400 bags of garri, 500 gallons of vegetable oil, among other items.
Folarin explained that the proposed gesture is part of the church’s phased continuous support to the Nigerian authorities in taming the coronavirus (COVID-19) and biting effect of the lockdown on poor citizens of the country.
He said ‘the global coronavirus pandemic has reached dangerous dimensions, with a spike in infection numbers around the world, and inevitable adverse effects on global economy and on virtually all areas of human endeavour.’
He said the church wishes to register its support, in its entirety, to the Nigerian government and global efforts to win the war against this unseen but common enemy of mankind.
The Presiding Bishop of the church, Dr. David Oyedepo according to Folarin ‘maintained that, the Church would continue to render medical, material and spiritual support to the government and the people to ensure that the situation in Nigeria did not explode or become intractable.
He said further that ‘Bidhop Oyedepo personally upholds the principle of giving and catering for the needy, which are the hallmarks of the ministry under his leadership.
Folarin said Living Faith Church Worldwide (Winners’ Chapel Int’l) has a long history of being one of the few churches that often rise to the occasion to support human rehabilitation during and after major crises in Nigeria.
He said the church has over the years rendered humanitarian assistance to some countries in Africa during post-war reconstruction. These usually run to hundreds of millions of Naira in financial value.
He recalled that in 1994, Winners’ Chapel was the first faith-based organization outside Rwanda to send materials and money for the rehabilitation of a people traumatized by a 100-day genocide that took the lives of about one million Rwandese.
The famous stone-age Koma Hill settlement discovered in the late 1980’s, had its first school, church, potable water and modern clothing in the 1990’s at the instance of Winners’ Chapel.
One of the little kids from Koma was sponsored by the Church up to tertiary education and had his first degree from Landmark University and is currently completing his Master’s degree programme at Covenant University. These two institutions are owned by Winners’ Chapel.
Aside the annual responsibility of disbursements of millions of naira to rehabilitate state, federal and international roads in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government (Ogun State), there is the David Oyedepo Foundation (DOF), which offers scholarships to indigent students and children of hundreds of poor Church members, from primary to university levels.
The Church’s engagement in offering scholarships to indigent students began in 1992. There was however a significant curve between 2012 and 2019, as scholarships offered were in excess of One Billion Three Hundred Million Naira (specifically N1,368,627,763).
On why the church is not loud on its humanitarian gestures, Folarin said, ‘we are inspired by belief in the biblical admonition that all acts of kindness should not be for showmanship- “for, the Father who sees your secret kindness shall reward openly”.
He howeve said the Church will not relent in offering help and partnering with government at all levels and responsible agencies, to tame COVID-19 and other monsters such as hunger and illiteracy, that have, in more recent times, shortchanged humanity.