Foundation pays for boy’s surgery

Despite has come for Oluwanimilo Afolabi, a three-year-old boy, who has been battling a huge tumour on his head for three years.

Last Sunday, the Chris Okafor Humanity Foundation (COHF) donated N500, 000 to fund the required surgery for little Afolabi at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Mushin.

Pastor Chris Okafor, General Overseer, Liberation Ministries International Churches, and Founder of COHF, said he was moved by the boy’s plight after reading his story in a newspaper.

“I saw the story of the boy with the lump on the head last Friday. Looking at his picture, I saw that the lump was almost as big as his head, and I felt touched. After reading, I went back to the room to break my fast that was when the Lord said to me: ‘You must help that boy,” Okafor explained.

Presenting the cash to the boy’s father, Mr Sola Afolabi, Okafor said COHF and the church would further intervene in Afolabi’s situation to ensure that he is restored to good health.

“My relationship with this boy (Afolabi) has just started; and it is just the beginning of good things to come,” the cleric said.

Okafor said lending a helping hand to the needy is “practical Christianity,” adding that the gesture is in line with the teachings in Matthew 25: 1-46.

“The only thing you can do for God is to reach out to others. The Bible says he that lends to the poor, lends to God. You don’t help someone because of what he can give to you,” he said.

Afolabi thanked the pastor for his gesture, explaining that he has been struggling to raise the money.

“I am extremely happy today for the milk of human sympathy shown my son by the COHF and the church. Some people advised me to inflate the amount needed, and I tell them this is not a business for me. All I want is to see my son well and able to run around like his mates. I am glad that COHF has now given my son the opportunity to live like every other normal child,” he said.

The dilemma all started on January 12, 2012, when little Afolabi was born. His mother had noticed a tiny lump on his head, which was mistaken as a boil. But later, the lump grew in size.

The father narrated further: “All this while, the child refused to eat. When the mother breast-fed him, he would vomit everything. Anything he takes in he vomits. At LUTH we were told he couldn’t eat because the passage where food goes through was blocked. As I speak with you he only eats through the tube attached to his navel. The doctors at LUTH said that the operation needed to give him succor would not be carried out then because of his tender age.  I still took him to LUTH when he was one and was told that he was still too young; look at how big the lump has become.”

Afolabi said the family’s lives had never remained the same since Oluwanimilo was born. “Raising money has been difficult. Since my wife was delivered of another baby, I have been the one running around for him. It has not been easy at all. It is lack of funds that has kept me till this time from taking him back to LUTH,” he submitted.

The post Foundation pays for boy’s surgery appeared first on The Nation.

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