FORMER MBGN QUEEN, AYUK WEEPS
Isabella Agbor
Ayuk, former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, MBGN lost total control and
broke down in tears when she came face to face with the reality that a
widow, Rose Leku Asigbe was thrown out of her home by her mates’
children after her husband died and left to live with her six children
in abject poverty at one of the most feared flood torn area in
Bendeghe-Afi community of Cross River State.
Ayuk
and her Isabella Ayuk Foundation, IAF team were out at the beginning of
the year on a five day charity outreach on indigent widows and
Cameroonian refugees displaced by crisis in southern Cameroon, beginning
from last Thursday when after much facts-finding came face to face with
Asigbe and her three children untold condition.
Despite
arriving Ikom late at night Ayuk and her team immediately proceeded to
visit Asigbe in her home, where she fully ascertained the circumstance
the widow was living in.
Accessing
Bendeghe-Afi community where the widow resides was not a thoroughfare
for the IAF team as they had to traverse three communities of 24km of
poor road access and were ferried on canoe across Bendeghe-Afi river
that night to be able to reach Asigbe.
On reaching the community at about 8pm,
Ayuk and her IAF team had to wait for Asigbe as she was out to scout
for what she and her three children will feed on the following morning.
When
Asigbe heard about the team’s visit not only did she find it hard to
believe her eyes that former MBGN queen came personally to visit her as
she settles down to narrate her untold story to Ayuk and her IAF team.
On
hearing the widow narrate her story, Ayuk became emotionally struck and
tears flowed out profusely. She wandered what the widow did to deserve
the treatment met on her.
The widow, who
originally hails from Obudu and married late Leku Asigbe has six
children for her late husband, but has given three out as house-helps
with only the destination of two known to her. Asigbe said she did it
all for the survival of her remaining three kids, who are still tender
in her arms.
But help finally came when Ayuk and
her team paid a visit to Asigbe as the Isabella Ayuk Foundation did not
only relocate the widow and her children from the flood tide zone to an
area that feels safe, but also opened a small-scale business for their
subsistence.
In Asigbe’s words translated from pidgin English: “Isabella has taken away shame from me…”
After
the meeting with Asigbe, the ex-beauty queen also took out time to
visit a large gathering of widows at Bendeghe-Ekeim where she provided
them with food materials and had a swell time with them as they composed
traditional odes for Ayuk and her team while they danced.
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