Do You Have A Heart Of Gold?

'A bone to a dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog' - Jack London 1876-1916.

One sunny Saturday afternoon in August, I was privileged to be invited by a young lady with a very large heart to an outing to mark her birthday. This was not a regular outing. Just as she was not a regular young lady. She is a lawyer and her good nature is almost infectious. Surreal, as a matter of fact.

The outing was not the regular like I said. She implored me to join her and a couple of her friends at the Heart of Gold Hospice in Surulere. She deemed it appropriate to share her joy with the children at HOG. I found it immensely admirable and I did not think twice about obliging. So, I drove down to join them in Surulere. I knew where HOG was. I had driven past many times as it was situated on a major road in Surulere. It was very hard to miss. I had however, never gone in. I just drove past and used it as a landmark when describing locations in Surulere.

We interacted with many of the kids. Most had congenital birth defects and were abandoned at birth. They had no say in their destinies, they did not get to choose. They were born to lousy parents and fate had become their best friend. The commonest pathology afflicting the kids there is Cerebral Palsy. This is a congenital problem that usually arises from brain damage usually sequel to perinatal accidents. Usually in this environment, the common cause is birth asphyxia, where the neonate does not spontaneously establish respiration and oxygen supply to the young and fragile brain is disrupted causing a part of that brain to die off from this acute lack of oxygen supply. Many times, it arises from poor care of the parturient, either by her own doing or by an inadequate and inefficient health care system. Unfortunately, the babies unjustly pay the price for our ineptitude as Nigerians.

I also met the Mama HOG. A woman who has dedicated her entire life to caring for the kids sane Nigerians brought into this world and abandoned. She is tireless and passionate about caring for those kids. She sees hope in an a seemingly hopeless situation. Medically, the prognosis of Cerebral Palsy in this part of the world is quite guarded and it can get very frustrating caring for brain damaged children. But, she does not falter. She wakes up everyday and calls them 'her gold'. The same children some of the deviant parents inundated God with prayers to have.

Eventually after playing with the kids, we all had to leave and I was deeply touched by the experience. It made me reflect on how unfairly generous life had been to me and my siblings. Those kids could have been any of us. We didn't choose just as they didn't. Nobody chooses to be that way. Life just happens.

The hospice runs on charity basically. They have administrative costs and overhead expenses that take care of feeding, medicare, clothing and staff salaries. They do not get a chunk of the national budget like the militants and subsidy thieves do. They depend on goodwill and magnanimity of kind hearted Nigerians. What this means is that, there is no certain source of income. Some months will pass with a flurry of donations (especially around the festive seasons) and some other months will pass with only a few drops of oil in their engine.

I was immensely grateful to my friend for inviting me. She is younger than I am but she taught me a valuable lesson about life that Saturday, albeit, a lesson I always knew but needed a refresher course on. Life deals cards to us as it deems fit. We will continue to be at the mercy of fate. We can only pray and wish it sits kindly on us. She also reminded me about the need to be charitable at all times. The kids will continuously need our help as there will be more of them going into such homes. If human stupidity was a stock, its price would be soaring on the stock exchange at the moment. Especially in this entity called Nigeria. There will always be abandoned kids in our midst just as the Bible says the poor will always be amongst us. The question is, how high is our threshold for giving?

The name Babatunde Raji Fashola means different things to different people in Lagos. I am ambivalent about him. Partly because I do not agree with his politics and policies sometimes. Yes, he sacked me and about 800 of my colleagues a few months ago, however, it will be criminal for me not to commend his benevolence by putting up the structure that currently houses the hospice in Surulere. To those kids, not all God's angels are winged celestial beings. To them, God's angel is a left-handed legal practitioner-cum-Governor.

I will however supplicate that more of such hospices are sited in high brow areas. I will explain. There's a motherless babies home in Lekki. It is sited right in the midst of 'big men' who reside in the ostentatious estate. By commission or omission, the home gets appreciable attention from their affluent neighbours. Some of the wealthy folks visit and send gifts to the home as an act of penitence to God for their dodgy ways. I said some, not all. Others do so because they are genuinely kind and humane at heart. Either way, the kids in the home get to enjoy small luxuries every now and then. Let us site other hospices in 1004, Victoria Garden City, Parkview, Banana Island and the other sophisticated residential estates in the metropolis. We must continue to seek the attention of wealthy folks. If they don't answer us at first, at some point, their chubby over-fed kids will ask 'Daddy, what goes on inside that place?'

To the young people who are caught up in the Brazilian hair-iPad3-Blackberry-iPhone5 vanity fair, we must emulate people like my young lawyer friend. Even when you do not have much to give, make plans to celebrate occasions with those kids. Invite your friends for your parties there and let them see that life has a part 2! Make the hospice visible to your friends and acquaintances. You never know who would be touched to help and you'll take credit for that goodwill. It is not enough to keeping updating 'Oniru beach....loading 70%' or 'Elegushi thinz' every birthday. Why not inculcate the habit of sharing your joy with kids who need care and affection. Trust me, Heaven will notice you and reward you in due time.

Do you have a heart of gold? That is the question...


If you haven't got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble' - Bob Hope.