BY RITA OYIBOKA
IT was Mother Teresa who said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
Those words have travelled across decades and continents, yet they find fresh meaning whenever ordinary people choose compassion over convenience. In the community of Oguname in Delta State, that philosophy is about to take physical form, not as lofty speeches or distant promises, but as healing hands, listening ears, and renewed hope.
From February 24 to February 27, 2026, a coalition of faith, service, and community spirit will converge to deliver something increasingly rare in today’s hurried world: care that sees the whole person.
At the heart of this initiative is a partnership between Victory Sanctuary Seventh-Day Adventist Church Lekki Lagos, its sister outreach Divine Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church Oguname, and the humanitarian organisation Grace for Impact Foundation. Together, they are organising a four-day free medical outreach and spiritual revival designed to serve the Olomu clan, a programme bornout of love for a people and a place.
The vision behind the outreach reflects a deeply rooted belief: healing is never one-dimensional. Physical ailments may bring people to the clinic, but emotional burdens, silent fears, and spiritual questions often travel alongside them. Recognising this, organisers have structured the programme to address what they describe as “the total man”, body, mind, and spirit.
Behind the initiative stands Dr. Tunde OgheneobrucheObrimah, an indigene of Oguname now based in Lagos, whose personal connection to the community shaped the mission’s direction. For him and many volunteers, this outreach is more than a charitable exercise; it is a return home, an act of gratitude, and a commitment to give back meaningfully.
Approximately 50 volunteers are expected to participate, forming a multidisciplinary team that reads like a miniature healthcare ecosystem. Doctors, dentists, optometrists, pharmacists, nurses, counsellors, and pastors will work side by side, each bringing specialised expertise yet united by a shared purpose.
Their goal is ambitious but grounded: to provide medical services to about 1,000 people within four days.
Free consultations will form the backbone of the outreach, allowing residents to speak openly with medical professionals about long-standing health concerns. For many, this may be the first opportunity in years to sit across from a doctor and ask questions without anxiety about cost. Medications will be provided at no charge, ensuring that treatment does not end at diagnosis.
Eye care services are expected to play a particularly transformative role. Free vision testing and distribution of glasses will help many regain clarity, literally and figuratively. In communities where blurred vision can quietly limit productivity, education, and daily independence, something as simple as a pair of glasses can reopen doors long assumed closed.
Dental care, often overlooked until pain becomes unbearable, will also feature prominently. Preventive care and treatment will help residents address issues that might otherwise linger in silence.
Yet the organisers acknowledge that some cases will require more advanced intervention. In such instances, the outreach team has arranged referral pathways to nearby facilities, including general and specialist private hospitals, ensuring continuity of care beyond the programme’s duration.
What distinguishes this outreach is not only the scale of services but the philosophy guiding it. The programme blends medical care with spiritual revival, reflecting a long-standing tradition within faith-based humanitarian work: the understanding that healing often begins with hope.
Throughout the four days, counselling sessions and spiritual activities will run alongside medical services. Pastors and trained counsellors will be available to listen, not to preach at people, but to engage with them, offering encouragement and emotional support.
In many communities, people carry invisibleburdens, grief, anxiety, family struggles, or personal disappointments, that rarely find expression. Creating safe spaces for conversation allows individuals to feel seen, sometimes for the first time in a long while.
For Oguname and surrounding communities within the Olomu clan, the outreach arrives as a moment of collective anticipation. Word has already begun to travel through homes, marketplaces, and gathering spaces. Families are planning visits together. Elderly residents who have endured discomfort quietly are preparing to seek help. Parents are eager to have their children examined.
Community-based programmes often carry a special emotional weight because they happen close to home. There is familiarity in the faces, comfort in the setting, and dignity in receiving care within one’s own environment.
Beyond the medical benefits, such gatherings often rekindle communal bonds. People meet neighbours they have not seen in months, conversations spark under temporary tents, and shared experiences remind participants of the strength found in togetherness.
Although the outreach is scheduled for four days, its impact is expected to extend far beyond that timeframe. Health education provided during consultations will empower individuals to make better lifestyle choices. Counselling sessions will inspire renewed emotional strength. Spiritual engagements will offer renewed purpose for those searching for direction.
More importantly, initiatives like this often plant seeds for sustained community engagement. They remind residents that they are not forgotten and encourage younger generations to envision service as a lifelong responsibility.
As February approaches, preparations continue behind the scenes, logistics coordinated, supplies assembled, volunteers mobilised. But beyond the planning lies something less visible and far more powerful: anticipation.
For some residents, this outreach may mean relief from physical discomfort. For others, reassurance during difficult seasons of life. For many, it will simply be the comforting knowledge that someone travelled far just to care.
Mother Teresa’s words echo once more: great change rarely begins with grand gestures. It starts with small acts carried out with sincerity.
In Oguname, healing will not arrive with fanfare. It will come quietly, through consultations offered freely, medicines handed over with kindness, prayers spoken in faith, and professionals choosing service over self-interest.
And when the four days conclude and the volunteers return to their various cities and routines, what will remain is something enduring: a community reminded that compassion still walks among us, and that sometimes, the most powerful medicine is simply the decision to show up for one another.
