Knights to raise over N500m fund for humanitarian works
Catholic Knights of St. Mulumba on Tuesday said its 70th-anniversary fundraising of over N500 million would be used to widen humanitarian services and mission works nationwide.
Some of its leaders said this in interviews with newsmen, at the sideline of its ongoing 70th Anniversary celebration in Lagos.
The theme of the anniversary was entitled: “Appraising the Past, Redefining the Present and Reshaping the Future.”
It was learned that Knights of Saint Mulumba was founded by late Rev. Fr. Abraham Anselm-Ojefua in 1953 with 23 members at the Holy Ghost College, Owerri, Imo State.
The leaders said that one of the core objectives of the organisation was charity to indigents.
One of them, Dr Charles Mbelede, Supreme Knight, Lagos Metropolitan Council, said the social crises that had rendered people homeless resulted in the widening of its humanitarian activities to cater for peoples’ welfare.
In his words, “The fundraising is to build more schools, homes for widows, offer scholarships, look after persons in the correctional centres, feed the hungry in the society and train seminarians to priesthood.
“Others are to offer medical outreaches and carry out evangelism works among other public services.
“The works are targeted at the less privileged in the society, irrespective of the faith; it aimed at changing peoples’ lives for the better to enable them to embrace salvation and good citizenship.
“It is a freewill donation that is a tradition in the organisation. The target which will be met before the end of the anniversary, is in the region of N500 million, to enable the body to complete ongoing projects and begin new ones.”
The National President, Lady knights (wives of knights), known as Nobles, Mrs Meg Anozia, urged the organisation to look inward and help people within the church passing through hardships.
According to her, so many people within the church are in penury of which a little aid from the pool of funds raised can go a long way in making them happy.
Anozia, decrying the groaning hardship in the land, urged women to be involved in politics for them to determine who leads the country.