Grace Greg Compassionate Home celebrates four years anniversary.
– Awotula Temidayo.
It is not just enough to have enough but regardless of how huge or how little we have, it is much more rewarding to give out to the society from what we have. Reaching out with compassion to the less privileged is a noble principle and this principle has been the driving force behind the success of Grace Greg Compassionate Home, Owo Ondo State.
You can call it an orphanage and you will not be wrong, but it is more than an orphanage as the establishment caters to the need of not just orphans but ” children of the street” who are abandoned to the vagaries of life at the early stage of their upbringing by parents who are overwhelmed by life challenges. Also, Grace Greg has been involved in the research and documentation of cases of domestic violence against the weaker sex and has engaged in advocacy to resolve cases of gender indifference and violence against women , girl child and children abandonment.
Running this outfit, which to all intent and purpose is a Non Government Organization (NGO) for the upwards of four solid years successfully calls for celebration and it was no surprise then when the management of the Home rolled out the drums over the weekend at St. Andrew Anglican Cathedral , Olori Owo to celebrate the four years anniversary of the passion inclined establishment. The proprietress , Pastor Mrs. Grace Abebi Adeniseun ( nee Aruwajoye) and her husband, Mr. Greg Aruwajoye alongside the children of Grace Greg home danced excitedly in a show of thanksgiving to God Almighty for the journey so far.
In an exclusive Interview with thepolity.net, Pastor Mrs. Grace Adeniseun revealed that establishing the Home was borne simply out of a passion drive . ” My husband and I were driven by passion to institute the Home. I can say over and again that lifting people is our drive. I personally come from a background where we were raised to understand the genuine ideal of love and compassion,” Mrs . Adeniseun added.
Mrs. Adeseun said her mother tarried a while hoping upon hope for the fruit of the womb before she was born, noting that her mother adopted some children and tendered them exactly like her own biological children. ” In our house, you can’t tell which child was adopted and which one was not because my mother gave all the children under her care equal growth opportunity. So from my childhood , I have been used to living with kids and growing up, catering for the needs of the kids eventually becomes my passion and what I live for.”
Mrs. Adeseun said when she was in Europe and during her stay in America, she used to reach out to people in need and she offered all sort of assistance ranging from financial patronage and accommodation.
Recounting one of her experiences in Nigeria , the Proprietress of Grace Greg Compassionate Home said, ” I visited the Prison with a government official and I saw kids under a very harsh Condition that moved me to tears. They were in the prison with their mother, innocent kids whose only offence was that they had mothers who had reason to serve some sentence. My background in US tells me that when mothers are in such dire situation their wards are taken to foster homes and that is a better arrangement than making innocent kids suffer grievously for crimes they knew nothing about.
” Children have been damaged and adversely affected by incidence of rape and ritual abduction. In order to curb this challenge in my own little way, I decided to go along with this idea of an orphanage and considering that I was obsessed with the concept of taking children off the street , I put my all into it. We started in 2015 in Akure with an orphanage and two years ago, we moved to Owo. Owo is our home town so we felt charity should begin at home,” Mrs Adeniseun stressed.
She said the children they pick off the streets are kids who have little or no life and no hope of ever seeing the four walls of the classroom. She said the kids were appropriately processed through the Government welfare unit and they are doing extremely well in their studies and are being inculcated with the acceptable social pattern of behavior for well brought up kids, adding that seeing these kids do well is her joy in life.
She added that the Home at Owo is not only for orphans but children that are abandoned and neglected in the street , noting that kids whose parents suffer mental imbalance , kids from broken homes and those whose parents are molested are the mandate of the home to withdraw from the street and given good upbringing at Grace and Greg Passionate Home.
Talking about her challenges, Mrs. Adeniseun said no doubt God has been faithful, but fund is a big challenge. ” I fund this place solely on support from my husband and my children who are based abroad. I told them this project is my life, my passion and my driving force . As for the kids, they have enjoyed good health and one has not been in and out of hospital because of them. That alone calls for gratitude to God in a big and loud thanksgiving. My first challenge is fund support. We are curbing the street of kids that if left alone will become a menace that will haunt all of us. So , I want Government to support this agenda as well as people of means in the Society. Another major challenge is counselling. These kids need counseling a lot; they have been going to school without proper counseling. I seek the input of professional Guidance and Counselor here.
” I registered the kids in our Home at a public school here at Owo but I discovered they are not coping at all. So I had to withdraw them and put them in a private school as many as they are, you can imagine! Fortunately , we found a Private School that partnered with us so that we can crash the high rate of school fees.
Actually with time, we hope to have our own school where we can solely cater to the educational demands of the children in our Home. For now, our major challenge are finance and counseling,” she noted.
When asked where she sees the Home in another ten years, Mrs. Grace Adeniseun enthused thus, ” my brother, this compassionate Home is an investment in future human resources that will outlive me. My dear, it’s going to be a blessing to generation yet unborn. I am convinced shakers and movers of the polity will evolve among the children in this Home. That is why I am very particular about their wellbeing. See, my wealth is measured by the size of the comfort of these young ones because while the society has abandoned them, the Home gives them hope, rebranding them and reviving through them the hope of a better future.
All our kids are the same, they are seeds and it’s only the land they fall on that differs.”
