The Presiding Bishop of the Living Faith Church Worldwide also known as Winners’ Chapel International, David Oyedepo, has donated medical equipment an
The Presiding Bishop of the Living Faith Church Worldwide also known as Winners’ Chapel International, David Oyedepo, has donated medical equipment and relief materials to Lagos and Ogun State governments.
This is as Lagos State begins the lockdown directive of the President, while Ogun State would commence its 14-day lockdown beginning Friday as part of measures to contain the community transmission of COVID-19 which has infected over 130 persons in the country.
In a statement by the Chairman of the Church’s Editorial Board, Prof Sheriff Folarin, the cleric donated ambulances, test kits, thermometers, amongst others to the two states, maintaining that the Church would continue to render support to the government and the Nigerian people in the fight against COVID-19.
“Among the medical/health resources are two state-of-the-art ambulances with capacity for first aid, test, and treatment of those infected or on emergency resulting from the infection. Each of the ambulances will be donated to Lagos and Ogun States to boost the disease control measures and treatment. Other items include 200 boxes of latex hand gloves, 400 boxes of disposable face masks, 40 pieces of infrared thermometers, 500 pieces of personal protective Hazmat suit, 20 pulse oximeters and 20 blood pressure monitor.
“Also donated are foodstuffs meant for immediate distribution as palliatives to the less privileged who are likely to be the worst hit by the lockdown. These are 400 bags of rice, 150 bags of beans, 400 bags of garri, 500 gallons of vegetable oil, among other items.”
Living Faith Church Worldwide has a long history of being one of the few churches that often rise to the occasion to support human rehabilitation during and after major crises in Nigeria.
Also, it has, over the years, rendered humanitarian assistance to some countries in Africa during post-war reconstruction. These usually run to hundreds of millions of Naira in financial value.
“In 1994, Winners’ Chapel was the first faith-based organisation outside Rwanda to send materials and money for the rehabilitation of a people traumatized by a 100-day genocide that took the lives of about one million Rwandese.
“The famous stone-age Koma Hill settlement discovered in the late 1980s had its first school, church, potable water and modern clothing in the 1990s at the instance of Winners’ Chapel. One of the little kids from Koma was sponsored by the church up to tertiary education and had his first degree from Landmark University and is currently completing his Master’s degree programme at Covenant University. These two institutions are owned by Winners’ Chapel.
“Aside from the annual responsibility of disbursements of tens of millions to rehabilitate state, federal and international roads in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government, Ogun State, there is the David Oyedepo Foundation (DOF), which offers scholarships to indigent students and children of hundreds of poor Church members, from primary to university levels. The church’s engagement in offering scholarships to indigent students began in 1992. There was however a significant curve between 2012 and 2019, as scholarships offered were in excess of 1.3 billion naira (specifically N1,368,627,763).”
“The ministry barely makes noise about this philanthropy and responsibility to the nation and children of God, inspired by its belief in the biblical admonition that all acts of kindness should not be for showmanship- ‘for, the Father who sees your secret kindness shall reward openly.’ Nevertheless, the church will not relent in offering help and partnering with government at all levels and responsible agencies, to tame COVID-19 and other monsters such as hunger and illiteracy, that have, in more recent times, short-changed humanity,” Professor Folarin said.
