By Princewill Ekwujuru

The President of Sunshine Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Rose Odiete, says the NGO’s annual Easter party for senior citizens is to put smiles on their faces.

Odiete spoke at this year’s Easter party for senior citizens held at the Assembly Hall, Grailand, Iju Hills, Ajuwon, Lagos.

According to her, the event, held in collaboration with the Committee of Concerned Women, Festac Circle, was set aside to host the elderly and generally try to cater for them.

“Sunshine Foundation has been hosting this party for over 22 years but about four years ago, we started collaborating with the Committee of Concerned Women, Festac to organise the party”, she said.

The husband who left his young marriage for an older woman!

“Basically, we realised that the elderly ones need to be hosted. And the first few that we did, we concentrated on people from Old People’s Home because we realised that they were completely neglected and even a lot of people didn’t know that we have Old People’s Home in Nigeria. So, when we realised that, we made it a point of duty once every year during Easter to bring them out of their homes to a neutral ground where we host them to a party.

“And we have since incorporated other elderly people like pensioners and retirees and we use this day to celebrate them. Generally, we feast, dance with them, give them little gifts when they are going back just to make them happy”.

This year’s event attracted about 100 senior citizens drawn from different parts of Lagos.

Mr. Jola Ogunlusi, a former National Secretary, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), one of the senior citizens, appreciated the foundation for the gesture.