PIETAN CARING MISSION FOR THE POOR (PCMP) organized a 2-days WIDOWS’ EMPOWERMENT AND BACK TO SCHOOL PROJECT for the Lessprivilege (poor Children and widows) from 14th to 16th April, 2023 at Domus Sancti Spiritus, Holy Ghost Cathedral, Ogui Enugu. This event is part of the year-long programme of the organization for the poor which had been scheduled to span from October 2022 until September 2023 themed BACK TO SCHOOL AND SKILL TRAINING INITIATIVE PROGRAMME. Throughout the programmes, the activities includes: enrolment requirements for 30 children, Payment of School Fees, Provisions of School wears, buying of books and other logistics, training of 30 widows on skills and Financial Support to establish the skills acquired.
Pietan Caring Mission for the Poor (PCMP) is an independent, missionary and solidarity oriented, non-governmental and not for profit making organization came as an answer to this invitation to LOVE and CARE.Withthe spiritual mandate to clothe the naked Christ and console His wounded heart, Pietan Caring Mission for the Poor (PCMP) was established to unravel and ameliorate the plights of its target groups. It focuses on three thematic areas: Care of the elderly Abandoned, Care of the Street Children, and Care of other vulnerable persons. It is very necessary to point out that the picking of the first man from the gutter aged 72 years from Attakwu- Akagbe on the 29th November, 2017 marked the humble beginning of this organization by its foundress Sr. Dr. Mary Jude-Therese Nwodo PhD. The projects of PCMP are sponsored by Mary Alphonsus Bradley funds USA.
Social Status
PCMP is based in Enugu State holding full registration status with all relevant Government Agencies and Institutions, such as:
- The Enugu State Ministry of Gender Affairs and Social Development – MGASD/No. 000281.
- Corporate Affairs Commission – CAC/IT/No 146662.
- Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering [SCUML] of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
- Pietan Caring Mission for the Poor’s programmes and activities are also been supervised by the Rome Catholic Church Authority of Enugu Diocese.
- Pietan Caring Mission for the Poor is also in collaboration with the laity, family and life unit of Catholic Secretariat Abuja and the Dicastery for Laity, family, and life Vatican City, Rome.
- PCMP partners with Dewdrop Foundation (DDF)
- This organisation has enjoyed sponsorships from MABF USA and many friend and well-wishers in supporting our humanitarian works.
The Vision, Mission, Objectives and Core Values of Pietan Caring Mission for the Poor (PCMP)
The Vision of PCMP is to attain psychosocial/spiritual wellbeing of the vulnerable persons and improve their standard of living, rebuilding their economic capacity, and ageing gracefully.
MISSION STATEMENT: Rooted in the love of God for Humanity, we are passionate and committed provider, offering care determined by individual needs. In caring for the vulnerable and abandoned elderly people, street children, promoting quality life befitting their dignity and respect through the culture of encounter, we promote a better society.
Goals and Objectives
To use all the effective psychosocial/spiritual practices that motivates and actively engage our beneficiaries develop necessary intervention to enhance a good quality of life. To create enabling environments that guarantee happy ageing, meaningful life and positive attitudinal change.
General Objective:
- To Age gracefully, attain good standard of living, improve their economic capacity, and to ensure the psychosocial/spiritual wellbeing.
Specific Objectives:
- Ageing meaningfully and happily in their homes.
- Reduce the menace of street children to a near zero percent level, have an improved lifestyle, provide access to quality education.
- Promoting Self-acceptance, give them a voice, improve the quality life and reintegration into the community while contributing to development of a better society, and becoming self-reliant.
Core Values; #CARES#
- C-compassion
- A-affection
- R-respect
- E-endurance/Empowerment
- S-services
Success Stories
Since inception, PCMP has been providing facilities that take care of the health and social challenges of its beneficiaries such as healthcare talks by engaging consultant geriatrics, organising medical out-reaches, paying some of their medical bills, regular checks of their vital signs in their homes and other related activities to make them live healthy, happily, gracefully and finally lead them to God. In fact, these activities can be itemized in details as follows:
- Care of the elderly: A minimum of 2,500 elderly persons from 45 rural communities in the Southeastern part of Nigeria (Enugu, Ebony, Rivers, Anambra States respectively), have benefited from PCMP’s eldercare activities. PCMP visited them in their homes and begin services based on the condition of the client. Sometime, PCMP pick them up from the street where he or she has been abandoned to die, clean him or her up and start attending to him or her, by providing them with the basic necessities of life such as;
(a)Provision ofshelter: PCMP has put up buildings for some of the elderly persons whose houses were falling, rented apartments for those picked from street, renovated some of their houses that have cracks on the walls and roof licking.
(b) Pastoral Care: preparing the elderly spiritually for a happy ageing and reconciling them to God and neighbors through involvement of the priests to administer appropriate sacraments when need arises.
(c)Health/Medicare: providing facilities that take care of the health challenges such as periodic gathering of the older persons (65 years and above) for medical examinations and administering of multivitamins, delivery of healthcare talks by engaged consultant geriatrics, organising medical out-reaches, and paid their medical bills, palliative distributions, food pantry, regular checks of their vital signs in their homes and other related activities to make them live good.
(d) Psychological and Socio-cultural Care: PCMP creates opportunities that help the elderly regain self-dignity and reliance as well as different socio-cultural activities that instigate healthy living in them such as funfair, free pantry services as well as other social activities.
(e)Social Welfare protection: The Organization’s engagement in the area policy reform and social protection for the neglected citizens is not left behind, hence its collaboration with Dewdrop Foundation and Center for Gender Economics to implement a two-year project on curtailing elder abuse in communities funded by Oxfam of Netherland through their Voice project in Nigeria. The project led to the creation of safe space in the 11 project communities to see for the wellbeing of the elderly. PCMP still continues to implement activities in this area to achieve maximum public awareness on abuse and other issues of the elderly.
(d)Sensitization and Awareness Programs: One of the PCMP’s most proud records is their impact on the area of public awareness on elder care especially elder abuse and its related issues. This is the main objective of its periodic activities, is to educate the public on the importance of eldercare and age related ailments, training of primary caregivers and Covid-19 sensitization workshops. PCMP has engaged in various projects which featured her founder Sr. Mary Jude-Therese Nwodo as well as other top government officials in various media platforms in Nigeria such radio and TV programs, street projects, conferences, focus group discussions, were to discuss the issues of ageing and the way forward. PCMP is currently leading an ongoing awareness campaign to implement the annual celebration of a day for Catholic grandparents and elderly as pronounced by His Holiness Pope Francis on 31/01/2021.
Through PCMP’s past activities in this regard, 17 troubled marriages have been resolved and issues of domestic violence ceased, 5 youth have also been empowered through skills training in different areas sponsored by PCMP, there is an ongoing sensitization on abuse of men in families as gender-based violence is usually reserved as women, PCMP is unraveling the plight of some men who suffer so much in their homes. We have equally helped in solving the problem faced by the Umuada (unmarried women in Ogbeke community in following ways: installation of the first woman community town Cryer in Ogbeke with titled rights, membership of the Igwe’s cabinet, right to inheritance in their families, and improving participation in decision making
(f) Skills display
The elderly persons do gather together in their safe-spaces to be engaged in those skills they know and opportunities to learn new ones. Such skills are knitting, sowing, making beads and so on.
(g) Home-Care services: Daily home visitation and care forms the major activities of this organistion. Since the inception of PCMP, 735 homes have been visited. Our encounter and discoveries in the homes forms the next line of actions in our home-care services. Some may need rush to hospital, some maybe providing food or keeping the environment clean and so on.
- Care of Street Children: Periodic scouting, rescuing and rehabilitation of street children are the mission of PCMP for this selected beneficiary. In its past years of work, PCMP has being providing the following services to rescued street children; Provision of shelter, re-enrolment to school, moral formation through socio-cultural activities, free committed pantry services and uniting them to their families. We believe that they in turn will participate in caring for the elderly. The usual practice is to pick them from the streets, settle them in PCMP’s rehabilitation center, get their history and unite them with their families when applicable. In some cases where the children cannot recall their root, the Organization takes the burden of catering for their basic needs including education. PCMP also engage the services of psychiatrist for guidance and counseling sessions to assist in quick recuperation process for the abused children. PCMP through its periodic street search has picked up to 85 children from the urban streets in Enugu state, out of which 15 have been empowered through various skills, 32 have been enrolled back to school while 38 were united to their families after thorough investigations.
- Care of other Vulnerable Persons: Other vulnerable persons such as women, persons living with disabilities, unemployed youths and domestically abused men, comprise PCMP’s target beneficiaries. Over the years, the organization provides the following services to these groups of individuals.
- Skill acquisition trainings
- Sensitization programs
- Pastoral care and Medicare
- Socio-cultural activities
- Psycho-social support therapy
- Free pantry services
Solicitation of Support
Considering so much imminent task ahead for the poor, PCMP is seeking support from individuals, government agencies, international and national organizations/donors to continue the work they do. They will appreciate your kind support in any form to carry out the following;
– Completion of the ongoing PCMP’s rehabilitation center,
– Establishment of skills acquisition center for entrepreneurship studies
– Continuation of sensitization and awareness campaign on care of the elderly
– Continuation of other PCMP’s activities. We are also open to partnerships/collaborations in areas that align with what we do at PCMP.
Contact:
Sr. Mary Jude-Therese Nwodo
For Pietan Caring Mission for the Poor
+2348036737660
www.pcm.org.ng
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