Shelter of Hope, not for widows only – Martha Emmanuel
*Martha Emmanuel
Akpan Umoh, Uyo
The wife of the Akwa Ibom Governor, Mrs Martha Emmanuel, has said that Shelter of Hope, a project of Family Empowerment & Youth Re-Orientation Programme (FEYReP) was not meant for widows alone.
Emmanuel said this to the Leadership of the Correspondents Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Akwa Ibom Council during an interaction with her in Government House Uyo on Monday.
She said that widows, widowers, and indigent families, without religious or political bias across the have benefited from the shelter of hope project.
The wife of the governor said programme was initiated to ameliorate the sufferings of widows and indigent families, who could not afford a decent accommodation.
On the criteria for selection of beneficiaries, she said that apart from physical assessment of the need of the prospective beneficiaries, she allowed the holy spirit to direct her choice.
“This is another programme that is also dear to me. I was moved to start this Shelter of Hope because I go into communities, and I see things with my eyes that was how I started it.
“You talked about choice how do we select? For it not to be abused by people around me, that is my staff, not to bring his/her relatives and friends.
“If I’m going to a particular Local Government Area, I’ll send them out to the communities, snap different pictures, bring them back to me, so when they bring them back to me.
“I’ll look at them and will be led by the Holy Spirit to choose and whoever I choose no matter who is there whether APC, PDP, anyone, that is it. I don’t care where the person is from.
That’s how we do it, the last one we did two months ago, a man that has 12 children, he is not a widower.
Our Shelter of Hope is not only for widows and the widowers, but for the poor in the society.
“So that man with 12 children was just fortunate to have been selected, imagine living with 12 children in a hut, grown up children. So, it was pathetic. I didn’t even know when I chose him. But God showed up for him.
“There is another one with 14 children, not exaggeration, they are all there, when I picked the house, I didn’t know about all these. Though we’ve done a lot for the widows and for the indigent ones in the society,” Emmanuel said
Our correspondent reports that Mrs Emmanuel, has built and furnished over 24 bungalows for widows, widowers, and indigent ones across the state under the scheme shelter of hope programme.
