With Joke Adeniyi-Jackson
Few days ago the news of a woman who delivered a quintuplets at Medical Centre, Jebba, Kwara State, went viral on the internet.
The picture of the newborns and their mother depicted their pitiable state. The babies, who seemed to have been born prematurely, were left unclad and the mum seems not to be in best of conditions. One could imagine what must have ran through the mind of the hapless mum and her husband, upon delivery of their bundles of joy, given the current economic situation in the country. A soothsayer need not tell that the family will need huge assistance and support from members of the public at a time like this and even thereafter. However, pronto, Barrister Toyin Saraki, Founder-President of Wellbeing Foundation Africa came to the aid of the woman. Living up to the objective of the Non Governmental Organisation to reverse the vicious cycle of poverty in the society by easing its less privileged of their burden, provided the mother and babies with essential items and made donation of N250, 000 to the family. This gesture, undoubtedly, comes a source of great relief for the couple. The wife of Senate President, Bukola Saraki has through her benevolence put smiles on the faces of parents of the quintuplets. The former first lady has continued to live up to her commitment to maternal and newborn well-being.
Her kind gesture does not come as a surprise given her passion towards preventing untimely death of pregnant women during child birth and afterwards.
This, incontrovertibly, informed the partnership of her foundation with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom and Johnson and Johnson, United States of America, to train health personnel in Kwara State and other parts of the country so as to check sudden deaths of pregnant women during child birth.
And, as part of efforts at ensuring well-being of mothers after delivery, she recently empowered pregnant women with free sewing machines and assured that her foundation with other donor agencies would continue to rise to their needs so as to make them self-reliant after their childbirth.
Toyin Saraki through the foundation’s numerous activities, has continued to enrich and improve the lives of others as exemplified in the case of the family that has just been blessed with multiple births.
Nevertheless, there is the need for other public spirited individuals, philanthropists, NGOs as well as the Kwara State government give the newborns lifeline by lending support to the family. There is a need for members to emulate the gesture of the wife of the Senate president. The couple should also enjoy the treatment received by the Udehi couple who were blessed with quintuplets last year and were gifted with a house by the Federal Government and given cash gift by Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki. And has aptly observed by late American Labour leader, Walter Reuther, “There is no greater calling than to serve your fellow men. There is no greater contribution than to help the weak. There is no greater satisfaction than to have done it well.”
