My Journey With Amaudo

April 8 2023

“My Journey with Amaudo”

Good Day Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you all for honoring the invitation to the’Dedication and Handover Ceremony of the Dr Ureh Nnenna Lekwauwa Student Hostel at Amaudo. It’s challenging to describe the journey that has brought me to this day, suffice it to say that it has been a Spiritual one. It would have been easy to say that it started in 2013 when Governor T A Orji approved my request to do a needs assessment of Psychiatric Services in Abia State which lasted a week after which I submitted a report with recommendations. I paid most of the cost associated with that trip but will like to use this opportunity to thank the then Governor for providing me with security, in state transportation and a hotel accommodation once I got to Umuahia.It was during that trip I met The Very Reverend Nwaubani.Even though none of the report recommendations were implemented, I am still grateful for the knowledge I got from that visit because it opened my eyes to the enormity of the psychiatric health challenges facing the people of Abia State. By 2013, I had already been involved for 11 years in health care service delivery in my home town of Abiriba during which I was haunted by the sight of the occasional psychiatric patient brought to our medical mission in chains and I believe that was when this journey started. God has been involved in this journey from the beginning although at times the path wasn’t as clear and straightforward as I would have preferred.

More than a year passed after the assessment and I was on my way home from an annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association when I thought of Amaudo because it happened to be the best organized of all the programs/ facilities I saw during my trip. I googled Amaudo and found Reverend Nwaubani’s number and called him and he picked up immediately. He remembered me and we started talks about Amaudo managing an acute integrated care center built by The Bloom Foundation in Abiriba. First of all a Contract was drawn to start a monthly outpatient psychiatric clinic which continues to flourish at Abiriba till this day. Suffice it to say that due to circumstances beyond our control the acute Care psychiatric services never materialized and I was very disappointed. It might please you to know that the building is housing a thriving inpatient unit where surgeries and other life saving procedures are performed.God is never late,His ways are not our ways and He sees beyond what we can humanly see at any point in time.

Fast forward to late last year when the burden of what to do about Psychiatric Services in Abia State was laid again on my heart and I met with our board and they voted to support Amaudo and meet them at the point of their need and so I called Reverend Nwaubani and asked him what Amaudo’s needs were and at the top of his list was a hostel for Nurses and Doctors training in Psychiatry and that’s how we got here.The goal of this building is to assist in the training of a Psychiatric workforce for Abia and surrounding States. We as a State and Community have a responsibility to take care of those of us who for whatever reasons are unable to care for themselves. God has already provided enough resources for this task , the question is whether we are willing to step up to that responsibility and challenge.

Today’s event would not have been possible without the support of our Board, my Family, my Husband Dr Aju Nmah Lekwauwa,our three awesome children, Urenna Nnenna Lekwauwa. esq. Engineer Samuel Lekwauwa and Ruby Enyindiya Lekwauwa MD. I will end with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr on service

‘Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service’

Ureh Nnenna Lekwauwa MD DLFAPA

Founder and CEO of the Bloom Health Foundation

Philanthropist Donates Fully Built Hostel To Amaudo Integrated Mental Health Foundation