There is a curious phenomenon that I have observed, that appears in some of the least expected venues of this crazy and unpredictable world. Oh, yes, -- there is plenty of evil and selfish skullduggery to cover this world in spades. But the remarkable peculiarity that catches my attention is the persistence and universality of this idea of “goodness.” Whether you are looking for it or not – its everywhere.
People long to be treated with goodness. And down deep within the human specie there is a desire to engage in acts and attitudes of goodness. People find it rewarding to treat others with kindness and be able to respond and help them when they are in particular need.
I have found outstanding examples of goodness and compassion in the varied countries of Africa while traveling there over the past 35 years. I believe that Project C.U.R.E. has shipped millions of dollars-worth of desperately needed medical goods into nearly all those countries.
In the city of Owerri in Imo State, Nigeria, Project C.U.R.E. became involved in an educational and humanitarian opportunity to be involved in “goodness” in a huge way. Honorable Ike Ibe, the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, traveled from Washington, DC to Denver, Colorado, in 2003. The trip was to specifically request help from Project C.U.R.E. The Ambassador knew we were involved in acts of “goodness.”
In 2000, King Eze A.N. Onyeka had already made me a Royal African Chief, “Chief Uzoma of Nkume People,” at an unforgettable ceremony in Nigeria. Now, the country needed help. “We desperately need to relocate the university medical teaching hospital to Owerri, in Imo State. We have enough resources to build the buildings, but we have no way of furnishing the facility with beds, medical equipment, or supplies. We simply need everything to put inside a teaching hospital! Will you please help us?”
After traveling to Owerri to personally assess the request, Project C.U.R.E. agreed to help them. Over the months, we processed and shipped nearly eight million dollars’ worth of desperately needed medical goods to the new University Teaching Hospital in Owerri. A huge miracle was taking place. In the late summer, I received word from Ambassador Ike Ibe that I should make plans to return to Owerri on November 30, 2004, for the grand celebration and commissioning of the beautiful, new hospital. Everyone who was important in that area of Africa would be attending. The president of Nigeria would be there, as would his cabinet, the governors, the university officials, and the tribal kings and royal chiefs. I would need to bring my royal chief regalia and be prepared to celebrate a modern miracle.
I arrived in Lagos and was flown to Port Harcourt, then escorted by car to the city of Owerri, in Imo State. The evening before the day of celebration, the president of Nigeria hosted a lovely dinner at the hotel ballroom. The next morning my hosts arranged for me to view the new teaching hospital by myself. They escorted me through the front doors and into the beautiful reception rooms and down each hallway of the hospital. They were afraid that if they made me wait until the president and his entourage and all the press toured the facility, they would not have time to personally show me and properly thank Project C.U.R.E. for the impossible miracle.
As I walked through each room and hallway, I was overwhelmed with emotion and a deep sense of satisfaction and gratitude. Immediately, I began to spot pieces of medical equipment and shelves loaded with supplies that had once been in our Project C.U.R.E. warehouses in the U.S.
Examination tables, various diagnostic scopes, blood pressure equipment, needles, syringes, and wound care kits that had been carefully sorted and packed into large ocean-going cargo containers by Project C.U.R.E. volunteers now filled the offices and rooms of the out-patient department. The only mammography machine in that part of Africa had made it safely from Project C.U.R.E. in Nashville to Nigeria, and had already been installed by bio-med technicians. The large x-ray machine had already been installed and the portable x-ray machine was proudly displayed in the hallway leading to the operating rooms.
I recognized the beds, the gurneys, the EKG machines, the defibrillators, the baby cribs and incubators, and all the items in the operating theaters. Everything had come from Project C.U.R.E. You can only imagine how terribly excited the doctors were when I came to their departments to share the moment with them.
The nurses were in their best starched outfits and busily scampering around making sure everything would be perfect for the tour of the Nigerian president and the governor of Imo State.
It was an unbelievable day of history and importance for the people of Imo State. They all knew as of Tuesday, November 30, 2004 that their hospital would be judged as one of the finest teaching hospitals in Africa. They proudly declared, “This now is the finest medical facility in Imo State and one of the best in Nigeria because of Project C.U.R.E.”
The people of Imo State, Nigeria, were desperately longing for someone to come to help them in their time of need. They needed someone to exercise some “goodness.” The thousands of volunteers in the Project C.U.R.E. warehouses scattered across the United States -- over in America -- were equally longing to reach out, and from hearts of kindness and compassion do everything possible to meet the needs of their distant friends whom they would never meet in their lifetimes.
And now, as a result of that first layer of goodness, the dedicated doctors and nurses of the new teaching hospital would be able to reach out in healing compassion to the sick and needy patients of Imo State. But in addition to all that, the Country of Nigeria and Imo State health authorities could become actively engaged in teaching thousands of young men and women over the years, in the arts and sciences of medicine. That new level of goodness would extend to the borders of eternity and literally change their known world.
The more I begin to understand and see this unspeakable phenomenon of “goodness” in action, the more I want to give myself to fulfilling that universal longing with immediate and direct attitudes and actions of love and compassion.
Next Week: Goodness Promotes Civility