Lane Hartill, CRS regional information officer for West Africa, submitted this report.

Christiana Oga is the orphans and vulnerable children coordinator at the dioceses of Otukpo in Benue State Nigeria. Mathew Ojah, pictured here, is one of the children Mrs. Oga works with. Photo by Lane Hartill/CRS

Christiana Oga is a hugger. When you have 2,000 children, you have to be. They all call her Mama, and with that slow, swinging gate, and that bouncing laugh, you kind of want a hug too. She doles them out to anyone so don’t worry, she’ll give you one.

Mrs. Oga is the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Coordinator for the Diocese of Otukpo, one of the 26 diocese in Nigeria that CRS supports. But don’t use that name around her, or around the children she helps. She doesn’t like it. To her, they aren’t acronyms, they are children. “What can we do about this name?” she asks. “I always look at these children as my own.”
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