Mercy Ministries was born out of a burning passion for the betterment of the living situation of the needy, to see less privileged people have access to – and live- a better life.
My evangelical mission takes me to the rural areas where I often come across indigent widows, young men and women wasting away without jobs or as dropouts, children running around naked because their families cannot afford to clothe them.

I returned home and thought long and hard about how I could make a difference. After all, people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. I wanted to send the dropouts back into school. I could feed a child for a day. I could empower a widow with a skill so she could work and feed her family.

I did some research and discovered that it was very feasible. I was shocked to find that with as little as N10000 a young man or woman could learn a skill that can put them back on their feet, restore their dignity and pride.

So, in August 1999, I made a move. I had my first meeting with some widows from different churches in my diocese (Oguta Local Government Area)
The meeting was held at St Mary’s Anglican Church field, Egbuoma. I will never forget that day. There was so much joy, excitement, happiness, relaxation and love. These women had been barely tolerated and ignored, and they were very happy to be seen, to be recognized. I was so humbled. These women felt loved and opened up to share their experiences.

There were childless widows, solely dependent on themselves. Their husband’s families had no interest in them because they had borne no children. I have single handed paid for the burials of 3 childless widows who were abandoned by the families they were married into.
There were very young widows between 23 and 30 years of age with 3-5 children, who were often taken advantage of by some irresponsible men who promised them better lives in exchange for their bodies, and ended up getting them pregnant and abandoning them with more children and no source of livelihood.

There were elderly widows who had been erroneously tagged as comfortable but were actually miserable because they had either lost their children to the cold hands of death through starvation and sickness, or their children could not take care of them because they themselves were not even financially capable of taking care of themselves.

There were also children, orphans who had lost both parents and had no one to help them. I absorbed them into the Outreach and gave them educational scholarships, while they lived with their kinsmen because we did not have a structure to provide accommodation for them. However, their families were fully aware of our mission and involvement in the lives of these minors.

Within a 10 year period, I had at least 200 widows in the Outreach. In 2000, Mercy Ministries was officially inaugurated by the then Bishop of Owerri Diocese, Rt. Rev. Cyril Okorocha (PhD), his wife Dr Eunice Okorocha (fondly called Mama Owerri), and Bishop’s Chaplain Canon Paul Nwaozuzu, among others in attendance. They had heard about the revolutionary movement and came to see for themselves. This inauguration gave birth to what is now known in different Dioceses as the Dorcas Ministry.

Every quarter, we organize seminars, trainings, workshops, etc. And every year, we organize fun fairs where we all turn up to have fun, share gifts of clothings, food, host graduation ceremonies for all academic and skill program graduates under the Outreach.