What would make a 22-year-old mother of four, Grace Udeme Esenowo, feed her children on the feeds for the chicken and fish from the farm where she is a co-attendant in Okon-Eket, Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom state?

However, the wife of Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Patience Umo Eno, is determined to get expert explanation for this oddity. She has called for mental evaluation of Grace who hails from Ikot Abia.

But before findings of the expert evaluation are reached, virtually everyone who heard of Grace’s touching story believed her seeming insane conduct must have been induced by hardship as Grace herself attested.

Grace, who is the first of five children, dropped out of SS1 at 16 when she got pregnant and was kicked out of the house by her parents.

She then moved in with her partner and had four children; a four-year-old, three-year-old, two-year-old and the last one that is one year old. She lost her partner who was beaten to death when he was caught stealing potatoes. She also lost her mother which made life unbearable for her.

Height of destitution

John Uzoma, a Priest and owner of the farm where Grace is a co-attendant to his fish pond and poultry hardly believed it when a male attendant intimated him that Grace was preparing a meal of fish and chicken feeds to feed her children.

The clergyman narrated, “We had discharged her because she wasn’t showing up at the farm regularly. But her uncle and others came to beg and my wife said since she lost her husband, she would need money to survive and we should let her continue to work. So, last week, I went to the farm and sent for her.

“When she came, we were discussing and the other farm attendant said she could come back to work but she should not bring the children to the farm. I said to him that I did not have any issue with the children coming to the farm. Are they destroying anything? He said no, but that they eat the feeds for the chicken and the fish.

“If the boy had told me this in the girl’s absence, maybe I would have felt the boy didn’t want her to work at the farm. But the girl (Grace) was there. So, I asked her, ‘is that true?’ She said yes. I said, why? Don’t you give them food? She said they sometimes stayed for three days without food. My heart failed me. I am a father. I am a pastor. I felt terribly indicted. So, the little I could do was that the plantain I had cut to bring back to Uyo, I gave to her, and then I gave her the only N2,000 I had on me.”

Turning point

Shaken by the terrible revelation, the Anglican Priest who serves in Uyo narrated the plight of Grace to his daughter, Queen Praise Uzoma, an influencer and content creator under the social media handle Nrindioma.

Almost immediately, Nrindioma escalated the story on her Instagram handle that, ‘A man stole sweet potatoes in Eket, Akwa Ibom state and was beaten till he bled to death. He had four kids and the wife was struggling to feed them. The wife (Grace) works on my father’s farm. Recently the other workers in the farm reported to my dad that this woman should be stopped from bringing her kids to the farm when coming to work. My dad had a meeting with them and asked why the other guy didn’t want the woman to bring her kids to the farm. The guy replied that they eat the chicken feed and the feed for the fishes. My dad, in shock, asked the woman if it was true and she said yes and that the children would go without food for two, three days. He gave her extra money that day and the bunch of plantains he had cut from the farm. If you are led to support this woman in any way, as I’m led, please visit her, to at least provide welfare materials that can last them for a month or two. I can’t do it alone. Kindly reach out to me”

New lease of life

Nrindioma made her instagram post on 12th of August and a day after, she had raised N1.4 million from donations online for Grace and her children.

According to Nrindioma, “We are trying to rehabilitate the girl, we have paid for one year’s house rent for her and bought a lot of food items for her and the children while one of the children had been taken up by the sister of the late spouse. From the goodwill cash coming in, we immediately did some shopping to furnish her new found home, a roomy one room apartment in addition to food and other consumables to last for at least three months. We also paid her salary to her employer to disburse for one year whether she still works at the farm or not. The monthly pay was augmented by N20,000 from the donations to make it N35,000 per month.

Governor’s wife steps in

The daughter of Governor Umo Eno also called Queen Uzoma to let her mother’s pet project, Golden Initiative For All (GIFA) join the efforts to transform Grace’s life. The influencer added, “A personal donation of half a million naira came from the governor’s wife.

That will be committed for her skills upgrade on hair braiding which she revealed as her passion. The father said he has cataracts and would need money for eye surgery. I had to tell him the donations were strictly to transform her daughter’s life but I had to give him N45,000, unless there is a directive to do more.”

Mental evaluation

Worried that Grace might not be in the right frame of mind to manage herself and her children following the distress she has gone through, Pastor Patience Eno had directed that Grace should undergo expert mental evaluation before she could be set up for her hair braiding skill acquisition and a petty trade to sustain her family.

According to Mrs Uduak Ekong, Media Aide to the wife of the governor, “we are not just giving money and going away, we are going to provide a lot of support. The next thing will be mental evaluation. After the mental evaluation, if Grace is okay, the next thing is to go for skills acquisition and then set her up in her skill and an alternative business on either foodstuff or provisions.

“The mentorship also includes tutoring her on how to manage her finances and income she will be generating, so she doesn’t waste her capital and can sustain her life. There are plans to take her back to school and for her children’s school too. Already, there is now family pressure. Following the new lease of life for Grace, the father now wants to come and live with her in that room with the children. The father has had a cataract for three years.”

VANGUARD