Mbaise Connect Redefines Community Self-Help Initiative

The Mbaise Connect Global Initiative, a not for profit, non governmental community based organisation is redefining the concept of “Think Home” with their multidimensional approach to community development. 

The group, which closed their annual calendar full of activities early this year, took a giant leap with a proposal to build an all-encompassing community centre in Mbiase, Imo State. 

The President of the group Mr. Waya Ejerenwa, used the opportunity to urge other well-meaning sons and daughters of Mbaise at home and in the diaspora to refocus development towards their ancestral home.

On the proposed project, Ejerenwa said that on completion the  Mbaise Community Centre would be one of a kind in the country. An all encompassing complex that would house a state-of-the-art physical and virtual library,  a skills acquisition centre, an ICT training centre, a museum to curate Mbaise history and heritage, three events halls, sports centre, accommodation facilities, and full recreational centre.

At an event graced by who-is-who in Mbaise, some prominent sons of the community commended the group for their steadfast efforts at community development interventions, especially in the areas of primary healthcare, education, and economic empowerment. 

Speaking at the launch of the Mbaise Signature Community Centre, Hon. Emeka Chinedu, member representing Ahiazu/Ezinihitte federal constituency at the House of Representatives, noted that Mbaise people would not be where they are today if they waited on the government for basic amenities. 

Hon. Chinedu recalled how communities in the area strived to provide electricity for themselves, build hospitals, schools, and even roads, saying that there are many other ways the government should encourage people who embark on self-help projects through counterpart funding. He urged other groups to emulate Mbaise Connect, especially their interventions in providing ICT facilities in secondary schools within the locality.

In a similar vein, the member representing Aboh Mbaise Constituency at the Imo State House of Assembly, Hon.  Princewill Ugochukwu Amuchie, said that the foundations of development in Mbaise community was laid through communal help thus the present generations should not abandon the ways of their fathers, especially at a time when official resources from government is getting scarce, but promised to do everything within his abilities to support organisations that show commitments towards community development.

Recalling how self-help formed the bedrock of development in Igboland, the father of the day at the occasion, HRH Eze Leo Nwokocha, Chairman of Mbaise Council of Traditional rulers, and the traditional ruler of Umunneato Nguru Mbaise said that between 1940 and 1950, virtually all the communities in the Igboland embarked on communal development projects and schemes like road reconstruction, establishment of primary and secondary school, building of health centres as well as post offices and church buildings.

Speaking on the sideline of the event, Mr. Kelechi Deca, Vice Chairman of the planning committee noted that there is urgent need for this generation to study the development templates of the past, review them, and make necessary adjustments to carry on with the culture of communal help across Igboland. He pointed out that “it was through community efforts that the Mbaise County Council saw to the establishment of Mbaise General Hospital as well as Mbaise Secondary School in 1956. After those two major projects, the template was replicated across Mbaise as many communities embarked on building their own secondary schools and hospitals”. 

Deca noted that it is unfortunate that “six decades after, some of those pioneering schools have fallen into different stages of disrepair following government’s negligence thus the need for the communities to rise to the occasion in restoring those institutions through the same acts of self-help that built them.”

With membership spanning 82 countries of the world, the Mbaise Connect Global Initiative has in the last few years embarked on massive development interventions in critical social sectors across Mbaise Homeland. 

In education, the group has built and equipped three hi-tech computer centers with high speed internet facilities in three secondary schools across the three local government areas of Mbaise.

The schools that have so far benefitted from MCGI’s commendable interventions are St. Patrick’s Secondary School Ogbe, Ahiazu Mbaise, Mbaise Secondary School Aboh Mbaise and Mbaise Girls High School Onicha Ezinihitte Mbaise.

In the primary health sector, the group has renovated two health centers in Ekwerazu Ahiazu Mbaise and at Mbutu, Aboh Mbaise and on December 31,2023, the group  handed over a newly built Nurses’ Quarters at the Primary Health Centre, Ezeagbogu Ezinihitte Mbaise.

Since the economy plays a crucial, even sensitive role in the rapid development of any community, state or country, MCGI has also carried out economic empowerment across Mbaise Nation. The group has given out over 100 sewing machines to the youths to support their entrepreneurship, and over 200 widows have benefitted from their SME small capital grants. It also fetes the less-privileged during Christmas festivities.