To mitigate the effects of the disastrous flooding that displaced thousands of people in Nigeria, the Coca-Cola Foundation and the Whitefield Foundation have allocated $175,000 to support the distribution of relief items to communities in Anambra and Delta states.
The Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) also stepped in with dietary support, including 120,000 bottles of water and juice.
The executive director of the Whitefield Foundation, Funmi Johnson, in a press release made available to LEADERSHIP, said that the devastating floods in all 36 states, which caused deaths, population displacements and widespread destruction of homes, farms and infrastructure, have become imperative to provide humanitarian interventions to these victims.
Johnson explained that his foundation has designed the program to address the needs of affected communities in Delta and Anambra states.
For her, “within the next three months, we would visit communities in Anambra State such as Ayamelum Local Government Area (LGA), Ogbaru LGA, Umueri Anambra East LGA, Anambra East LGA, Anambra West LGA and for Delta State, we should arrive towards Isoko South LGA and Ughelli South LGA”.
The chief executive said the interventions will focus on providing food and immediate medical assistance to 5,000 households and implementing a series of mitigation measures to reduce the risk of spreading disease in communities, adding that participants would be advised to protect themselves. against becoming victims of gender-based violence in similar circumstances in the future.
In his response, Anambra State Lieutenant Governor Dr. Onyeka Ibezima expressed appreciation for the foundations’ timely intervention and urged grantees to make the most of the opportunity.
“On behalf of the Anambra State Government, I would like to record our thanks to the Coca-Cola Foundation, the Nigerian Bottling Company and the Whitefield Foundation for empathizing with our people during this difficult period. I also urge people to try to make the most of the intervention, in particular the advice and the agricultural seedlings that cannot be quantified in monetary terms”, he asserted.
He maintained that food and medicine would run out, but the knowledge impacted through counseling would live forever with the beneficiaries.
Similarly, Anambra State Health Commissioner Dr. Afam Ben Obidike praised the humanitarian aid, calling it an investment in humanity. “We are grateful for Operation Ladder, financed by the Coca-Cola Foundation, because it is an investment in humanity, which is the best from our point of view as watchdogs for public health,” he said.
According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 4.4 million people have been affected with 2.4 million people displaced and 660 dead due to the worst flooding the country has seen in more than a decade. .
The initiative, which is expected to last three months, will focus on vulnerable groups such as mothers and children, the elderly and people with disabilities, with at least 30,000 people from 5,000 households receiving nutritional food packages.
