Folorunsho Alakija Partners With Benue State Government To Bring Succor To Benue Widows And Children.
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| Oil magnate, Folorunsho Alakija (left) and wife of Benue State Governor, Mrs Yemisi Dooshima Suswam during the former's visit to Benue. |
Founder of Rose of Sharon Foundation, Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, is on a quest to improve the lot of widows in Benue State in partnership with the state government, during her recent visit to the state she disclosed a number of plans outlined to help the government as well as Sev Av foundation to bring succor to widows and children.
“God has heard your cries and He is willing to deliver you. He said He is the husband of the widows. God would not come down himself to help but would send people. Therefore, God has sent us to you… we have come to realise that more than three quarters of you are farmers and that many of you have just small portions of land that you farm to make ends meet. But today, God is starting a process that would take you to the next level.
To this end, we are working with government of Benue State to ensure that government assists Rose of Sharon Foundation (ROSF) to help you by providing large portions of land for you to farm on a large-scale and then the Foundation will buy modern equipment for you to use in farming. We would teach you and the children how to use these modern equipments so that if you used to get 100 yams, you would begin to get a 100o more.
You would be using the machines for the farm instead of using your bare hands and very soon you would be supplying the whole of Nigeria and outside Nigeria on the long run. Through this, you would move from the level you are now to the next level. We would also set up schools for your children and you have your children go to school for free.” With these words, Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, Founder, Rose of Sharon Foundation had, over a couple of years back, consoled the numerous widows that thronged the empowerment programme organised in Benue State for widows. That seemed to be the starting point for a journey that continued this year when the foundation recently paid a visit to the Benue State governor in a bid to cement a partnership with the state in the quest to alleviate the woes of widows in Benue State. This is therefore an indication that the period of hardship and adversity experienced by the majority of widows in Benue State is nearing an end.
The foundation, founded by a former fashion designer, Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, is poised to extend a helping hand to widows and their children as well as orphans through donations, scholarships and offer of vocational training.
Within the last five years, the Foundation has successfully provided micro credits to Nine 973 widows, educational scholarships to 1,366 widow’s children and 88 orphans towards strengthening the enabling environment for widows and orphans in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States.
As part of its strategic plan of reaching out and touching widows across the length and breadth of Nigeria, it conducted a feasibility study in Benue State three years ago and discovered that the state had over 5,000 widows, (the highest in Nigeria) out of which 2000 were registered with the Foundation.
As a result of this discovery, the Foundation, led by its founder, decided to pay a courtesy visit to the Governor of Benue State and his amiable wife, Mr. and Mrs. Gabriel Suswan to discuss how to enter into partnership with the government with a view to alleviating the suffering of these widows and their children. Thus, last Friday, the members of the Board of Trustees of the ROSF embarked on a courtesy visit to Benue State.
They received a warm welcome by Governor Suswam, his wife, Dooshima, Head of Service, Mr. Terna Ahua, Chairman, State Civil Service commission, Mrs. Comfort Agogo, Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Mrs. Comfort Ajene, and other members of the State Executive Council.
“The good thing is that most of them in that area are farmers. What the Rose of Sharon does is when we go to a state, an area we try and find out exactly what are the general needs and because we don't like to put round peg in square holes, there is no point giving a widow what she cannot manage or what will not help the widow, so we find out what they need to improve their lives. What we discovered in Benue is that about 95 percent of them are farmers, so what we decided to do is to partner with the government in sourcing for land, providing all the machines and equipment that they could need for mechanised farming because at the moment we have very little land individually and they farm with their hands, so naturally they would only be able to produce very little.
The foundation, founded by a former fashion designer, Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, is poised to extend a helping hand to widows and their children as well as orphans through donations, scholarships and offer of vocational training.
Within the last five years, the Foundation has successfully provided micro credits to Nine 973 widows, educational scholarships to 1,366 widow’s children and 88 orphans towards strengthening the enabling environment for widows and orphans in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States.
As part of its strategic plan of reaching out and touching widows across the length and breadth of Nigeria, it conducted a feasibility study in Benue State three years ago and discovered that the state had over 5,000 widows, (the highest in Nigeria) out of which 2000 were registered with the Foundation.
As a result of this discovery, the Foundation, led by its founder, decided to pay a courtesy visit to the Governor of Benue State and his amiable wife, Mr. and Mrs. Gabriel Suswan to discuss how to enter into partnership with the government with a view to alleviating the suffering of these widows and their children. Thus, last Friday, the members of the Board of Trustees of the ROSF embarked on a courtesy visit to Benue State.
They received a warm welcome by Governor Suswam, his wife, Dooshima, Head of Service, Mr. Terna Ahua, Chairman, State Civil Service commission, Mrs. Comfort Agogo, Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Mrs. Comfort Ajene, and other members of the State Executive Council.
“The good thing is that most of them in that area are farmers. What the Rose of Sharon does is when we go to a state, an area we try and find out exactly what are the general needs and because we don't like to put round peg in square holes, there is no point giving a widow what she cannot manage or what will not help the widow, so we find out what they need to improve their lives. What we discovered in Benue is that about 95 percent of them are farmers, so what we decided to do is to partner with the government in sourcing for land, providing all the machines and equipment that they could need for mechanised farming because at the moment we have very little land individually and they farm with their hands, so naturally they would only be able to produce very little.
As we all know with mechanised farming one can multiply in hundreds of folds whatever one has been producing manually. And also we empower their children through scholarships because when a widow makes money, what does she do with the money? She will use it to educate the children because the breadwinner of the home is gone she has become the breadwinner. Naturally, if we are able to provide scholarship to two in each family I believe it will go a long way in reducing the stress on the mother”, Alakija noted.
The governor and his wife were very receptive and promised to support and partner with the Foundation in order to alleviate the suffering of the widows and orphans.
Consequently, the major areas of focus over the next couple of years would include agriculture due to the fact that majority of the widows registered are mainly engaged in subsistence farming. The Foundation therefore would facilitate subsidization of fertilizer, introduction of mechanized farming, provision of storage facilities for widows' farm produce, enterprise development training, and educational support for interested widows, their children, and orphans.
The Foundation also used the opportunity to visit the state's First Lady's pet project, SEV-AV Foundation and SEV -AV Women Coalition Against HIV / AIDS.
In order to provide quality educational and economic development services to its widows and orphans on a sustainable basis, Rose of Sharon has partnered reputable institutions such as Lagos State Ministry of Education for quality education and education advisory; Empretec Nigeria Foundation (a private sector initiative of United Nations Center for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for Entrepreneurship Training Workshops (ETW) Programme, while its Doctors’ Reachout Initiatives ensures affordable healthcare services to the Foundation’s Widows, their children, and orphans.
Founded over eight years ago, Alakija, a woman of many parts, has through the foundation affected a lot lives. She is a woman who believes in touching the lives of the less privileged to honor God and to thank God for God’s favour and grace in her life. The fashion designer-cum-businesswoman believes in “whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”
Alakija who described the foundation as a calling from God that she heeded, said, “It was a calling from the lord. I had a passion for the physically challenged, I thought that is the way God wants me to assist them but I wanted a confirmation and I went to the lord in prayers. The result of my prayers was that He said I should reach out to the widows, so whatever I do for the widows and the orphans, I do in obedience to God. I do it unto the lord, because it is a passion in my heart.”
Rose of Sharon Foundation (ROSF) is not only providing the enabling environment for our widows and orphans to meet their immediate needs through financial empowerment (micro credit scheme), educational scholarships (widow’s children and orphans), support for accommodation and shop rents, quality and affordable healthcare services but it also provides capacity building for them through enterprise development trainings to improve their chances of having reliable livelihoods and help them to be self-employed, thereby strengthening their roles in shaping their future and that of their children.
The governor and his wife were very receptive and promised to support and partner with the Foundation in order to alleviate the suffering of the widows and orphans.
Consequently, the major areas of focus over the next couple of years would include agriculture due to the fact that majority of the widows registered are mainly engaged in subsistence farming. The Foundation therefore would facilitate subsidization of fertilizer, introduction of mechanized farming, provision of storage facilities for widows' farm produce, enterprise development training, and educational support for interested widows, their children, and orphans.
The Foundation also used the opportunity to visit the state's First Lady's pet project, SEV-AV Foundation and SEV -AV Women Coalition Against HIV / AIDS.
In order to provide quality educational and economic development services to its widows and orphans on a sustainable basis, Rose of Sharon has partnered reputable institutions such as Lagos State Ministry of Education for quality education and education advisory; Empretec Nigeria Foundation (a private sector initiative of United Nations Center for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for Entrepreneurship Training Workshops (ETW) Programme, while its Doctors’ Reachout Initiatives ensures affordable healthcare services to the Foundation’s Widows, their children, and orphans.
Founded over eight years ago, Alakija, a woman of many parts, has through the foundation affected a lot lives. She is a woman who believes in touching the lives of the less privileged to honor God and to thank God for God’s favour and grace in her life. The fashion designer-cum-businesswoman believes in “whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”
Alakija who described the foundation as a calling from God that she heeded, said, “It was a calling from the lord. I had a passion for the physically challenged, I thought that is the way God wants me to assist them but I wanted a confirmation and I went to the lord in prayers. The result of my prayers was that He said I should reach out to the widows, so whatever I do for the widows and the orphans, I do in obedience to God. I do it unto the lord, because it is a passion in my heart.”
Rose of Sharon Foundation (ROSF) is not only providing the enabling environment for our widows and orphans to meet their immediate needs through financial empowerment (micro credit scheme), educational scholarships (widow’s children and orphans), support for accommodation and shop rents, quality and affordable healthcare services but it also provides capacity building for them through enterprise development trainings to improve their chances of having reliable livelihoods and help them to be self-employed, thereby strengthening their roles in shaping their future and that of their children.
Culled from ThisDayOnline.
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