By Fortune Eromosele, Abuja

Disturbed by the heightened spate of food insecurity and hunger, a group, International Association of Lions Club, Wuse-Abuja chapter, has earmarked 120,000 malnourished persons to feed in a year.

The President of the Association, Tola Jacobs disclosed this during her inauguration as the 20th President of the Association and fund raising dinner to alleviate hunger in Abuja. She lamented the growing numbers of malnourished persons, adding that more work has to be done to nip in the bud the situation.

She lauded the federal government for its efforts towards lifting Nigerians out of poverty, explaining that the federal government cannot do everything and therefore called on more humanitarians to rise to the occasion of dealing with hunger, poverty in the country.

Jacobs noted that the Association has fed 20,000 impoverished persons since July this year. She however, solicited for funds to hasten the project to feed 120,000 in a year.

She said: “Our core project for the year is feeding the hungry, when you feed people you give them life. After the pandemic, many people faced challenges of hunger and so many displacements. In Wuse Abuja Lion’s Club, we decided to go into the work. Even the government is trying but they can not do it all, so we decided to feed a 120,000 for the whole lionistic year.

“That’s why we are here to get support from people individuals, parastatals and ministries. Already we’ve started, we’ve been able to feed 20,000 people since July and we are still going on.”

Speaking on other programs the association is working on, she said the Association seeks to assist children with eye defects and also cancer patients.

“There are many children out there that have problems with their sight but we don’t know. We have a program on vision, awareness on cancer, even paediatrics because there are children out there that have cancer you wouldn’t know until you get to the hospital.

“We are creating awareness for parents to know when and what to see, that could be cancer, because it has no cure and is better treated when found early. 

“We know there is no treatment for cancer, we can only raise awareness that can sustain them and make them happy before they go. We had cancer awareness last week, and we were able to tell women and men what signs to look out for” she said.