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A non-for-profit organisation, NGO started by an elderly couple has empowered widows in Osun State. The event took place during its latest empowerment event in the state capital.
The organisation known as Emi-Kola Afolabi Foundation gave grinding machines to ten widows drawn from different local government areas in the state. Each of the machines is said to cost N170,000. The widows were chosen from among a cross section of widows, following a thorough screening exercise were also expected to sign an agreement, which allows for officials of the NGO to provide regular support to the beneficiaries by monitoring the business to ensure that the widows get informed advice and direction for a successful entrepreneur. The monitoring exercise, according to the organisation, is to assist the beneficiaries to make good use of the equipment and get guidance in financial management, so that the objective of the empowerment programme will be achieved by both parties. The NGO registered by Sir James Adenkola and Mrs Lucy Emiola Afolabi, both of whom celebrated their 90th birthday last April, has been in operation for 20 years.
In the two decades of its existence the couple has supported a good number of less privileged people in society. So, apart from the empowerment of widows, the Foundation annually gives scholarships to indigent students, making donations of food items to orphanage homes, correctional centres, as well as other vulnerable people. That is aside from free health programmes, which include tests and medications, all of which are handled by qualified medical personnel. The recent widows’ empowerment programme is this year’s edition of the scheme, usually done exclusively of the other programmes undertaken by the foundation.
Addressing the audience at the event, Mr. Kola Adetumbi, a retired permanent secretary and chairman of the Board of Trustees, BoT of the Foundation, told the beneficiaries, “The grinding machines being presented are not merely items of equipment; they are tools for empowerment. They represent an opportunity to generate income, serve your community and strengthen your capacity to provide for yourselves and your families.” In order that the gesture of the Afolabis would produce the set objective of helping the needy, Mr. Adetumbi advised the widows to “use them (the grinding machines) carefully, maintain them properly and allow them to become instruments of progress in your hands.”, adding, “We pray that the work of your hands will prosper and that this support will open doors to greater opportunities.”
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