HANDEF to distribute wheelchairs to needy

Wife of former Ondo State governor, Mrs. Olufunke Agagu, has said that the Handicapped education Foundation (HANDEF) would distribute 550 wheel chairs to needy beneficiaries in the country with a charge to government to provide succour for them.The former first lady, who made the disclosure in Akure, said government at various levels should strive more in the area of provision of social services particularly in providing succour for the physically-challenged members of the society.Mrs Agagu, who founded HANDEF as her pet project while in office, said the organization would continue to strive to be more meaningful to the less privileged.She, however, called on privileged members of the society to always share a thought for those with physical disabilities.The former first lady said, 'it is by assisting this segment of our population that we can get the blessings of God as a nation and as individuals and we can feel fulfilled that we are indeed discharging our obligations to fellow men'.She said HANDEF had been collaborating with donor agencies across the world in its bid to bring succour to the less privileged in the society.According to her, the wheelchairs which would have cost about N37 million were to be procured from the open market, were donated freely to the organization by a foreign body, the Free Wheel Chair Mission of California, United States, and will be distributed to beneficiaries drawn from the South West states of Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ondo, as well as Edo State.Giving the breakdown of the distribution among the states, she said Ondo had the highest number of 172 beneficiaries, Osun followed with 102 while Oyo, Edo and Lagos had 51, 16 and 10 respectively. Ogun and Ekiti had 36 each.Mrs Agagu, who noted that the distribution was the largest number of mobility aids to be made by any individual or organization in Nigeria to the physically challenged said 'in the eight years of operations of the HANDEF, six of which was spent while my husband was in office as the Governor of Ondo State, we were able to distribute about 400 wheelchairs.'She expressed appreciation to the state governments like Lagos and Osun, which governors have agreed to provide transportation for beneficiaries from their states to Akure next Thursday to receive the wheelchairs and a private organisation that had agreed to bring beneficiaries from Ogun State.
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