The food was ready. The truck was loaded. Bags of rice, cartons of spaghetti, jerrycans of vegetable oil, and tomato paste were packed tight for the widows, widowers and the less privileged of Umuokpeyi-Umuobasiukwu in Ozuitem Autonomous of Bende Local Government Area of Abia.
But between Machiani Foundation for the Needy and Community Development, and the people it came to feed stood one thing no donation could cross: a road swallowed by gully erosion.
What should have been an hour outreach from Umuahia, the capital city turned into a 10-hour test of faith for Coordinator Mrs Peace Ezeka and her team.
It ended not with applause, but with a broken-down bus, a night spent sleeping on village mats, and children watching from the bush because there is no classroom for them to run to in the morning.
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Umuokpeyi sits just off the Uzuakoli–Bende/Arochukwu road, in Ozuitem Autonomous Community, Bende LGA, Abia. From the map it looks close. On the ground, it feels like another country.
This is agrarian land. When the rains come, the soil gives back citrus that stains your fingers orange, mangoes heavy enough to bend branches, pineapples, cassava, maize, yam, and palm oil.
Chief Ogbonna Chikezie, an octogenarian and community leader, put it plainly: “We are an agrarian community. We produce cassava, maize, yams, vegetables, palm oil and others. But when it rains, by the time we get to the market, it has already closed.”
The produce rots because the road dies first. The only alternative is worse — a local bridge has collapsed completely, cutting Umuokpeyi-Umuobasiukwu off from Umuahia, the capital city of Abia and neighbouring towns.
The community grades the road themselves in dry season. The next rainfall erases their labour. Till date, there is no light, no school, no hospital, no good water, no good road.
The Machiani team left with hope but they arrived with fear.
“We had a lot of challenges, the road to this community was so bad because of gully erosion,” Ezeka recalled, her voice still carrying the weight of that night.
“Our bus broke down on the road. We were stranded for several hours. We had to offload all the food items,” she added.
It was late. Rain fell hard. The bush closed in. No passers-by. No vehicles. Only forest, mud, and the sound of water cutting deeper into the gully.
Volunteer Mrs Okwuchi Nwaubani still shudders at the memory: “We were surrounded by bush. We didn’t see any passers-by or vehicles. Our lives were at risk.
“Government should come to the aid of this community because they are suffering.”
The team trekked a long distance in the rain, drenched, carrying what they could on their heads.
Bus driver Mr Mike Ndubuisi, who has plied Abia roads for decades, was stunned: “I became frustrated, thirsty, hungry with no assistance while in the bush for hours.
“The last time I passed here was about 15 years ago. I didn’t know the road was this bad.”
They slept in the village that night. Not by plan but by survival.
At dawn, the town crier’s voice cut through the quiet. Word spread: “Machiani Foundation is here.”
The following morning, residents came out en masse. Widows. Widowers. The less privileged. Children who should have been in uniform stood barefoot at the edge of the crowd.
“Many of them came out and they were happy for what we did. We too, we were happy that we saw them and they came,” Ezeka said.
With the collaboration of Abia State Emergency Management Agency, the Foundation distributed rice, spaghetti, oil, salt, and spices.
For beneficiary Shadrach Nweke, a preacher from Ebonyi, it was more than food.
“I’m overwhelmed that my name was included even though I’m not from Abia.
“The people did not segregate. My prayer is that the foundation will be like a tree planted by the riverside,” he said.
The natives prayed. Long, fervent prayers for the Foundation. And one prayer, repeated like a chorus: that government should remember Umuokpeyi and come to their rescue.
Of all the lacks, one breaks the heart fastest.
“The children and youth cannot go to school because there’s none there.
“The closest school is a very long distance away. With this road, we can’t continue to come here as an NGO,” Okwuchi, the volunteer said.
So the children play in the red earth when they should be in classrooms. They watch trucks get stuck where school buses should pass. They inherit isolation instead of opportunity.
Machiani Foundation, founded seven years ago by Mrs Mercy Ottah-Nwaubani, was built on one principle: “We don’t care where you are coming from. Whoever needs help will get help.”
Their mission is clear: feed the poor, fight for women and the girl child, provide skill acquisition, and stand for justice. But the cost is personal. There is no external donor.
“It’s the founder, Mrs Mercy Ottah-Nwaubani, that has been funding most of the things. Even now, we are still owing the boy who helped us carry items after the vehicle broke down,” Ezeka admitted.
Her appeal is simple and urgent: “I would like to see more foundations come up. When you give somebody something, you have added life to that person.
“If we come today, another NGO should come next two months. Then the people will say, ‘Ah, we too will not die, we will be alive to be eating.’”
Until the road comes, Umuokpeyi-Umuobasiukwu remains what it is today: rich in farm produce, poor in access, and waiting.
A community that feeds others, but cannot feed its children education. A people who pray for strangers who risk their lives to reach them, while asking government to remember that they exist.
The gully took the road. It must not be allowed to take the future.
