US foundation provides 700 police widows, orphans free health insurance

A United-States-based charity organisation, Kedrick Scribner Foundation, in partnership with the Lagos State Health Management Agency have enrolled 700 widows and orphans of the police officers into free health insurance.

This forms part of its humanitarian campaign to support widows and children of deceased policemen. The gesture was also to celebrate the 2024 International Widow’s Day.

At the ceremony on Saturday in Lagos, founder of the Foundation, Dr Kedrick Scribner, represented by his wife, Mrs. Victoria Scribner, said the gesture is to reach out to the less-privileged, particularly the wives and children of deceased police officers.

According to Scribner, the foundation has impacted thousands of people positively in the last four years.

She said: “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.

“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.”

The Foundation holds its outreaches twice a year and plans to extend its tentacles to other states, Mrs. Scribner added.

The Foundation Manager, Mrs. Glam Flang Bulus said the initiative is to bring succour to the wives and children of fallen heroes.

“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.”

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

Adelusi, a mother of four, said: “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.”

Another beneficiary, Mrs. Esther Zitta, whose husband died in 2011, appreciated the foundation for the huge gesture.

“This initiative is good and 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,” she said.

A friend of the foundation, Patrick Okorie, thanked the foundation for its gesture to humanity.

He said the intervention would help the downtrodden heave a sigh of relief.

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