Molusi Road, Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State - Nigeria
The Fransiscan Sisters of the immaculate started their missionary work in Nigeria in 1999. Since then, the Sisters took care of the lepers colony in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State. Which is located at nearly 3 hours away from Lagos.
While caring for the material and spiritual needs of the patients, the sisters soon realized that their children, although free from disease, were marginalized by the society due to prejudice, poverty and ignorance. Therefore, the Sisters decided to devote much of their effort to the overall training and support these children offering them a temporary shelter in the premises of the Diocesan Pastoral centre, Ijebu Igbo, Ogun State where they too live and work.
The Sisters do take care of 16 boys and 14 boys from 6 years to 17 years. They are all going to school. They are all children from people who suffer from lepers .The Sisters do want them to have a good education and it starts with school. The primary school is close to the school and they have organised a bus for those who are going to secondary school which is 20 min away by bus. We were amazed on how each child is participating in the household tasks of the centre such as cleaning, cooking and washing. The Sisters want to educate them to real life and they are doing an amazing job
When we went to visit them we were happy to come with 100 kilos of rice , medicines supplies, clothes , notebooks and pencils for the children . Children were very proud to show us were they live and what they do. The boys’ house is yet to be finished and the boys are very proud about having their own place. m. They sleep 4 in each room on twin beds without mattresses. It is the same for the girls . Everything is very well organized and in case a child forgot about his task there is a planning recording him or her what he has to do.
The Sisters want to keep the contact between the children and their family so they are seeing their parents during the summer and in December if it is possible.
The centre is safe and secured by fences .There is a beautiful garden where the kids can play . They have no Nepa ( Electricity in Nigeria) but they have free water as they have a water in pump in their garden . They kindly allow all people of the village to come and collect water.
The Sisters are also working hard on constructing a new building in Sagamu , that will accommodate 80 girls, chosen from among the poorest and needy families and orphans. They decided to give priority to the girl’s home because of the greater vulnerability of woman in the Nigerian society today.
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Some land was donated to the Sisters by the Catholic Bishop of Ijebu-Ode and the construction started in August 2, 2006. The building is finished now but they do need all furniture, bed sheets, and pillow case to welcome properly the children.
The Sisters have for only resource the good will and generosity of people who truly care about the future of Nigeria. They render their service without asking for remuneration.
Your generosity can make dreams come true and what seems to be impossible become possible. They are really making a beautiful job with the children.
We defined a project in agreement with the Sisters and according to their needs as we visited them on the 22nd of June 2008.
We want to start helping them by providing once a month food and hygiene supplies.
We agreed that every month we would give the children and the Sisters rice, powder milk, tomatoes, washing powder and soap which represent a cost for our association of 381 Euros a month or 4567 Euros a year.
Then if we can get more donors and more money we would like to help them in buying some furniture for the sagamu’s centre for the girls. We are waiting for the quotation of the furniture and also for the quotation to finish the boy’s house at Ijebu-Igbo. We will update the web site as soon as information come available.