A United States (US) based charity organisation, Kedrick Scribner Foundation, has lifted 700 widows and orphans of police officers with free health insurance.

Founder of the Foundation, Dr. Kedrick Scribner, represented by his wife, Mrs. Victoria Scribner, said this at the outreach which took place in Ikeja, Lagos at the weekend, disclosing that the gesture formed part of the Foundation’s humanitarian campaign to reach out the less-privileged, particularly the wives and children of deceased police officers, and also to celebrate the 2024 International Widow’s Day.

Mrs. Scribner said the Foundation had impacted thousands of people positively in the last four years, stressing that the project, being the fourth edition of the initiative ‘Widow’s mite 4.0,’ with the theme ‘Hope Beyond Grief,’ was at the heart of her husband, a retired police officer.

According to her, the outreach is done in partnership with the Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA).

“So far, it has been phenomenal and everything has been going on as planned. This initiative is very dear to my husband, being a retired police officer himself, and knowing how difficult life can be for the wives and children after the demise of an officer.

“The Foundation holds its outreaches twice a year and plans to extend its tentacles to other states.

“This is the fourth edition of the initiative ‘Widow’s mite 4.0,’ with the theme ‘Hope Beyond Grief.’ This is done in partnership with the Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA),” she said.

The Foundation Manager, Mrs. Glam Flang Bulus, said the initiative was to bring succor to the wives and children of fallen heroes, whom she noted had to go through a lot of pain and hardship after the death of their husbands.

Besides, she disclosed that the Foundation also had the Kedrick Scribner Vocational Centre here at the United Church of Christ in Nigeria, Mountain Troops Police Barracks, Ikeja, where it trains willing widows and orphans free and give them start-up materials to start their businesses.

“You find out that these women go through a lot of pain and hardship after the death of their husbands, and so the Foundation decided to give them this gift of free health insurance.

“We will be enrolling 700 widows and orphans, but if we do below that number, we continue with the rest at the next outreach or whenever they wish to join the scheme.

“We also have the Kedrick Scribner Vocational Centre here at the United Church of Christ in Nigeria, Mountain Troops Police Barracks, Ikeja, where we train willing widows and orphans free and give them start-up materials to start their businesses.

“The insurance is free and forever. The Foundation will keep renewing it yearly for as long as the beneficiaries are alive,” Bulus stated.

A beneficiary, Mrs. Theresa Adelusi, a mother of four, described the initiative as a laudable idea to address the health challenges of police widows and orphans.

Adelusi expressed for the kind gesture at this particular time when cost of medical treatment had shot up, praying that God would rich bless the Foundation and their sponsors.

“I am very happy because we all know how much it costs to get treatment and medications now. But the foundation decided to gift us with this and we appreciate them for it. I pray God will keep this foundation higher and their supporters and their pockets will never run dry,” she prayed.

Another beneficiary, Mrs. Esther Zitta, whose husband died in 2011, appreciated the Foundation for the huge gesture, describing the initiative as good as it “will help us to manage our health needs well, especially since I can no longer access the health insurance we used when my husband was in service.”

A friend of the Foundation, Patrick Okorie, thanked the Foundation for its gesture to humanity, expressing the belief that the intervention would give help the downtrodden heave a sigh of relief.

He also enjoined other well-meaning Nigerians to emulate the gesture by giving back to humanity.