Several years ago when Mercy Okafor Onanwa got married to her hearthrob, Christopher, hopes were high they would live happily thereafter and raise kids that would in turn take care of them in their old age.
The arrival of the first child, Henry, a boy, brought enormous joy to the family. However, trouble began soon after the birth of the second child, Chidie bere, a girl, who had what seemed then like a slight sight challenge and the family attributed it to measles which was rampant at the time.
Somebody advised that the child should be taken to the eye hospital in Kano. Chidiebere was taken there. But notwithstanding the parents efforts, the girl went blind. It was the same story for the third child, Uchenna, and two other siblings, Nkechinyere and Kaodilichukwu. “Greater part of my motherhood has been spent taking care of the blind children,” their mother lamented.
But for the family, the worst was yet to come. The mother is today paralysed and confined to wheelchair after she reacted to an injection.
Mrs. Onanwo is a widow having lost her husband in 2001.”I have seven children, namely, Henry, Chidiebere, Uchenna, Ek enedilichukwu, Nkechi, Ifeanyi and Kaodilichukwu. While Henry, Ekene and Ifeanyi don’t have health issues, the other four are blind and we have suffered terribly for the past 40 years”, she narrated.
“While I was healthy, I was the one running from pillar to post seeking for help on how to train and take care of the children. But I started having my own health challenge after some years until I was finally demobilised in 2012. Since then, I’ve been confined to the wheelchair and the bed where I eat, pass urine and faeces.
“I was given an injection in a hospital which I suspect had either expired or had serious reactions on my system leading to paralysis of my two legs. I was at Amaku General Hospital, Awka for two weeks before my transfer to Nnamdi Aziki we University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, where I stayed for seven months, without recovering the legs. I suffered from bed sore and the hospital fixed a urine bag and catheter to my system which I’ve carried since then. We tried all we could for the blind children”.
Emyben Foundation, moved by the pathetic situation of the mother of seven from Umuoba Akabor village, Mbauk wu, Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State, offered to lend a helping hand.
The president of the foundation, Prince Emeka Ekwealor, and friends donated bags of rice and cash to the family.
The foundation also encouraged one of the blind daughters to sit for examination for admission to the university with a promise of scholarship award to any level if she scaled through.
The presentation of the gifts to Mrs Onanwa took place during the finals of the football match competition for primary schools in Mbaukwu which was also sponsored by Ekwealor and aimed at nurturing hidden talents in the community.
The widow thanked the foundation and other public spirited individuals, for their assistance aimed at rehabilitating her children so as to make them useful members of the society, adding that it had not been an easy road for the family. “The family struggled to get two of the blind children pass out of secondary school while the other two dropped out. The last one, Kaodilichukwu, was in school when I took ill and that has been where we are since then.
“My daughter, Ekene, is the only eye of the family now. She is the one who takes care of the five of us at home while her own future has been mortgaged because of out condition.”
The immediate past President General of Mbauk wu Town Union, Chief Omife I. Omife, and Chairman, Old Akabor Village Union, Sir Nwankwo Samuel, noted that the family members don’t indulge in anything evil and never had issues with their neighbours or the community and appealed for more help for them from the public.
