Legacy Matters
Chidi Anyanwu grew up with over 200 infants that his parents took in and cared for. A recent nursing school graduate in British Columbia, he's returning to Nigeria to carry on his parents legacy of saving infants.
With a freshly minted nursing degree from Trinity Western University, Chidi Anyanwu, 32, is preparing to return to his Nigerian hometown to help run Grace Hospital, a rural health facility that opened in May 2005. Established by Chidi"s parents, the hospital is just one of four organizations they"ve begun since moving from Vancouver to Africa 27 years ago. The creation of these organizations—The Eziama Motherlesss Babies Home, King"s Kids Elementary School, Elijah Memorial Skills Acquisition Center and Grace Hospital—was set in motion by one tiny baby only weeks after their arrival. And the ramifications of this event set the course for Chidi"s life.
Chidi"s parents returned to the Eziama community—a grouping of 80,000 people in 23 villages in rural Africa—after attending Bible school in Canada, intending to plant churches. Up until that point, the community—Chidi"s dad"s hometown—had been torn apart by war, superstition, poverty and a lack of health services and education.
They began the normal missionary process, but two weeks after we arrived in Eziama, a woman died giving birth, one village over," says Chidi. "In those days the custom was to leave the baby to die because it was deemed responsible for the mother"s death. And according to superstition, harm would come to anyone who cared for the baby."
After hearing about this baby, Chidi"s mom went to the village, took the baby home, and cared for it.
"Word spread about what my mom had done. The villagers and everyone around expected something evil to happen to her," explains Chidi. "As time went on and nothing happened, word spread that there was this lady taking care of babies. Soon after, another lady died, this time giving birth to twins, and they were brought to our home so we took care of them. Within six months we had 24 babies in our house."
People like Chidi and his parents are the hope of Africa. The Great Legacy of his parents continues.