Widespread and severe poverty in Nigeria has over the years become an everyday situation in many communities across the country with a large number of the populace subdued to a life without good food, clothes, education and other basic amenities.
A 2020 report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), showed that an estimated 40 percent or 83 million Nigerians fell victim to poverty. Children are considered the most vulnerable as they lack the physical and mental development to independently provide the resources needed to survive, develop, and thrive without the support and supervision of parents, guardians and other adults in their immediate environments.
Worried by the high and rising spate of child poverty in the country, Always Sisters Foundation (ASF), a charitable non-governmental organisation (NGO), conducted its Children’s Outreach programme, aimed at rendering humanitarian and financial services to underprivileged children in Mararaba Loko, a community that shares boundaries between Abuja and Nasarawa State.
The programme held on August 7, 2021, was attended by a huge crowd of over 800 needy people. Also present were community leaders who were impressed by the organisation’s goodwill.
During the outreach, ASF members and volunteers made donations, including food items, clothes for girls, boys and underprivileged mothers, school books and other educational materials to the members of the community. The girls were also given basic education on the menstruation cycle of a woman and its importance, and also provided with free sanitary pads at the end of the training
The foundation also disclosed the launch of Project Hope, an initiative that focuses on raising donations and empowering women without a means of livelihood.
After listening to Chika Obiechina, ASF director and founder, talk about Project Hope, Funmi Olorunmola, the representative of Citizen’s Participation Campaign Wellness Initiative, drew her attention to two young women who needed urgent intervention and support from ASF’s intervention project.
An orphaned female lady saddled with the responsibility of raising her siblings was also discovered at the outreach. Following consultations with members of the foundation, the ASF director agreed to support the three girls as beneficiaries of the newly launched project.
The ASF executive director further noted that the responsibility of the foundation is to cater to children, women and girls who are the driving force of the foundation.
“We intend to achieve this goal through our causes. Project Hope is the first official project we are starting with. Our hope is that the three women discovered during the outreach will be taken care of. We intend to provide health care to the partially blind lady, health care to the pregnant teen, help them through school, or equip them with skills,” she assured.
ASF was duly registered as a corporate body by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in 2011 and is currently self funded by Chika Obiechina, its founder and executive director, alongside friends and families.
The foundation is open to donations from individuals, organisations and business owners willing to sponsor the outreach in kind as well. For partnership/sponsorship, the organisation can be reached on 07037670521/09079033300, while donations/support can be made to; Always Sisters Foundation for Care and Development/Access Bank/0038600860.
