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Ndewo nu! Good day, and welcome.
His Royal Highness, Eze Chukwuemeka Boniface Unogu, the Ishigbo of Owerre-Nkwoji Community, our Royal Father of the Day;
The Ndi Nze of Owerre-Nkwoji, our Chief Host, led by their Chairman, High Chief Chijioke Francis Akunnia Tassie, the AgbaraNduNze;
Chief Barrister Uchenna Alaoma, President General of the Owerre-Nkwoji Town Union, our Host;
Mrs. Agatha Onyeso, President of the Owerre-Nkwoji Women; Rt. Hon. Dr. Chukwudi Jones Onyeriri, our Special Guest;
The President of NAPPSA, Dr. Kunle Tometi;
The President-Elect of NAPPSA, Dr. Gerald Muforo;
The Immediate Past President of NAPPSA, Chairman of our Board of Trustees, and our benefactor, Nze Emmanuel Chukwumaeze Ezirim, RPh, Onye-Omere-Na-Ndu;
Our Secretary of the Board of Trustees and Director, Engr. Comrade Levi Kelechi Onwujuruba;
Our Chiefs and our Lolos; Our respected Elders;
Our health workers, friends, ladies and gentlemen; All protocols observed.
On behalf of The Garden of HOPE Foundation, I welcome you with a full and grateful heart.
My name is Egondu Onyejekwe, President and Founder of The Garden of HOPE Foundation. It is my honor to open this inaugural meeting of our partnership with the Nigeria Association of Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Scientists in America, NAPPSA, for our Joint Rural Health Development Program.
Today marks a beginning. But it is a beginning built on years of quiet, steady work.
The Garden of HOPE Foundation rests on a simple conviction: We Will Rise by Lifting Others. For us, HOPE means Hands Outstretched, People Elevated. Of our seven program pillars, Health has always been close to my heart, because good health is the ground on which every other dream is planted.
Our health work began with Community Health Workers, the people who walk the roads, knock on the doors, and know every family by name. Under the leadership of our Board of Trustees, many of whom are present today, these projects were well planned and well guided to successful ends.
Our Rural Healthcare Project is organized in four phases, one for each health condition: Phase I, high blood pressure; Phase II, diabetes; Phase III, malaria; and Phase IV, cancers, which means prostate cancer for men, and breast, cervical, and uterine cancer for women.
Within each phase, we follow the same three steps: screening, so that no condition hides in silence; diagnosis, documented in digital health records, so that each person’s story is counted and protected; and treatment and care for those who are diagnosed.
For Phases I and II, high blood pressure and diabetes, screening and diagnosis are complete. Today, with NAPPSA, we take the next step: treatment. Phases III and IV will follow in due course.
I also recognize Dr. Emmanuel C. Orazu, resident doctor at the Owerre-Nkwoji Health Centre, and the Community Health Workers who make this outreach possible. Your daily commitment is the backbone of everything we do.
Our motto for this outreach says it all: Care. Screen. Save. Give Hope. Let this not be a single event, but the first chapter of a lasting program. Let us
measure our success not only in the number of people we see, but in what we leave behind: trained hands, reliable records, steady medicine, and communities that know help is not far away.
NAPPSA, thank you for answering the call. Thank you for lifting others as you rise. The Garden of HOPE Foundation is proud to stand beside you.
Your health matters. Welcome to this partnership. Welcome to this work. And welcome, truly, to the Garden.
Long live the Eze! (Birikwe O) Long live Ndi Nze Owerre-Nkwoji!
Long live The Garden of HOPE Foundation!
Long live NAPPSA, and all our people! All protocols observed Unu Anwu Chu le e. Thank you.