The increasing number of mentally challenged persons on our streets, most especially in Aba and Umuahia will give a responsive Government such as ours a great concern. It became therefore necessary and timely to evolve a program that will help in rehabilitating such persons and subsequently integrating them with their households and the larger society.
It is against this backdrop, that a concerned Non-Governmental Organization, “Action Support and Care”, with presence in four nations of the world; Gambia, Rwanda, United Kingdom and United States of America and with over twenty years experience in care giving, volunteered to offer a helping hand by entering into partnership with Abia State Government through the Ministry of Special Duties and Vulnerable, to attend to the needs of the vulnerable groups, including the destitute and mentally deranged persons.
The cardinal goal of Active Supports and Care is to get the these mentally challenged women on our streets to their mental health facility, restore them to sound mind and mental state and subsequently empower them financially to setup their own small scale businesses, with provisions for monitoring and follow up at six weeks intervals to ensure their health status stabilizes.
To this end, the managers of Active Support and Care has rented a four bedroom apartment named “Body and Mind” to quarter the convalescing patients in Abia, which three of the patients at ESUTH, has been referred back to Abia. The NGO is also acquiring a large piece of land where it will use for the building of a bigger edifice for the commencement of the Healing Field Project that will accommodate both males and females in various stages of mental distress.
Our dear state need to be purged of these mentally challenged individuals as it is not a good sight to behold on our streets. Therefore this NGO needs the support and cooperation of all well-meaning Abia citizens