Jude Opara Memorial Old Peoples Home (JOMOPH) was purely established as a non-profit making organization with the utmost objective of improving the quality of life of the facility residents by providing them with decent accommodation, health care and other services. It will be of great essence for us to listen to the story of what happened in our State, told by one of us here today on his first visit to the home. It will help us to have deep understanding of what this home stand for. According to him there was a woman whose children lived abroad, leaving their mother in the hands of a mentally deranged sister. Money wasn’t the problem of the woman but lack of care and attention was the major issue. She became sick and went to FMC Owerri, but had nobody to direct her to see a doctor, she stayed there till evening and returned back without seeing a doctor. Nobody saw the old woman for days till neighbors started perceiving offensive odor in the compound. When they approached the old woman’s room, it was ascertained that the bad air was coming out of her room. Her door was forced open and it was discovered that the woman was already dead and the body decaying.
JOMOPH is a place specially designed for our elderly parents and relatives (Ulo ndi Agadi), where adequate attention and quality care services are provided to them. The Home has residential care facilities with quality accommodation, and supported by a 24-hour health care services. We have a management team whose hearts work in unison with that of the founder.
Truly, I see a team who are servants of Humanity. The team consist of the Medical Director, Attending Physicians, Registered Nurses, Auxiliary Nurses, Chaplain, Physical Therapist and many other workers who contribute their quota in the smooth running of the Home. I would like to say without mincing words that JOMOPH is not just an ordinary home like our various homes, but it is an extra-ordinary home set aside for service to humanity in a very unique way. I would like to correct an impression here. Many of us think that sending an elderly person to a home like this, means abandonment.
Bringing your old person to Jude Opara Memorial Old Peoples Home doesn’t connote abandonment, but it is another higher level of care-giving to your elderly parents or relatives because there are people who will be with them 24/7 in your absence. Jude Opara Memorial Old Peoples Home is not operational only in Nigeria, it has also been registered in California, United States. This is to say that we are not standing alone in this noble assignment. We have foreign based medical practitioners who give professional advice where necessary. It might also interest you to know that the founder of this noble home is a practicing nurse in United States, who has bagged various professional trainings in the country, and most of our drugs for treatment are all from there.
