• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Serving God in our neighbours- the Obijackson example

obijackson foundation

A Foundation is a non-governmental entity that is established as a non-profit corporation or a charitable trust, with a principal purpose of making grants to unrelated organizations, institutions, or individuals for scientific, educational, cultural, religious, or other charitable purposes.

This broad definition encompasses two foundation types: private foundations and grant making public charities.

Dr Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi, Founder Obijackson Foundation

A private foundation is an independent legal entity set up for solely charitable purposes. Unlike a public charity, which relies on public fundraising to support its activities, the funding for a private foundation typically comes from a single individual, a family, or a corporation, which receives a tax deduction for donations.

The word “Foundation” is commonly incorporated into the names of many different types of nonprofits (e.g., The Susan G. Komen Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation). But not all of these “charitable foundations” are Private Foundations. In fact, a private foundation is a very specific and distinct type of charitable foundation.

The major difference between a private foundation, like The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and a public charity like the Make-A-Wish Foundation, is the source of their financial support. While a public charity gets its funding from the general public, a private foundation usually has one source of funding, typically an individual, family, or Corporation.

The Obijackson Foundation is a typical private foundation which is a non-profit organization that was established in 2010 and an affiliate of the Obijackson Group. The sole aim of the Foundation is to ensure that there is an improvement in the quality of lives of the underprivileged in low income communities not only within our target population but also in the Southwest and Abuja capital territory of Nigeria.

Currently, the immediate operational base of the Foundation is in Okija, Anambra State; with an extension of its charity work in Enugu, Oyo, Lagos state and Abuja.

For the Obijackson Foundation, Serving God in our Neighbours is the driving force in achieving this goal. Who are our neighbours? The Oxford dictionary definition of a Neighbour in concordance with its biblical use is “Any person in need of one’s help or kindness”. This encompasses the mission of the Obijackson Foundation as we aim to help within the capacity of our resources those who are in dire need. This we do through tailored interventions designed to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDGs 1,2,3,4,6 and 10 in our various locations. In addition, in recognition that health is not just the absence of disease or infirmity but a state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being, we also cater for the spiritual needs of our beneficiaries. This is done via our in-house Priest who provides spiritual support and life counselling for beneficiaries experiencing the vicissitudes of life in addition to other interventions aimed at alleviating their conditions.

Microcredit Empowerment and Skill Acquisition Program – The Community Empowerment program was set up in March 2016 when the Foundation identified the need to tackle the high rate of poverty by financially supporting indigents, especially widows to set up small businesses that will enable them fend for themselves and their families. The aim of the empowerment program is to be a social change catalyst in reducing poverty by empowering the less privileged and transforming one family at a time.

This entrepreneurship initiative involves interested prospective entrepreneurs passing through a visual and numeric screening to ensure they qualify to benefit from the program after which they present businesses they have experience or genuine interest in. Seasoned professionals are brought in as resource persons, to Okija from Lagos by the Foundation to train prospective empowerment beneficiaries on how to set up and manage a business before they get empowered. In addition, proper documentation of the person’s location of business and residential address coupled with a presentation of a surety/guarantor is done to reduce default rate. Over the past 3 years, the Foundation has set up over 250 micro enterprises for beneficiaries in various communities in Anambra State, Enugu State and Abuja. Our flexible re-payment plan and free entrepreneurial training have encouraged the indigenes of the communities to willingly apply for the loan.

Education Program – For us, we believe Education should be made available to all who hunger for it. We have made significant impact by offering scholarship to indigent beneficiaries, sponsoring as well as executing educational projects, competitions and expositions amongst students at all levels. Since inception of the Foundation, the unit through the scholarship scheme, has catered for the tuition fees of over 100 indigent students across primary, secondary and university education. Educational projects executed within the period include but are not limited to quiz competition, Igbo debate competition, football competition, essay writing competition, book drive, code camp in partnership with Google and Techquest, Computer based Test Training and literary writing.

Soup Kitchen Program – Presently on this platform, the Foundation supports the indigent people in various rural communities through monthly distribution of food items and cash allowance. We have 22 Soup Kitchen centers across 16 towns in Anambra and Enugu State. Currently, we have a total of 599 beneficiaries in this program. In addition to that, we cater for the needs of 20 persons that are home bound (poor people who are helpless due to old age or serious disability).

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Health Program – This is a key intervention program of the Obijackson Foundation, aimed at the provision of quality and prompt health care to the poor in the society. Indigent persons who are eligible after thorough assessment are taken to Tertiary Care Hospitals. We also carry out random acts of wheelchair and orthopaedic bed donations to the disabled and rehab homes. We donated 21 mobility aids to physically challenged persons in 2018. Indigent persons with long-term cases such as hypertension, diabetes etc. are enrolled into the Foundation sponsored community health insurance scheme for easy healthcare access.  We organize outreaches and campaigns to reach a wider audience. In 2018, over 300 persons benefitted from our free eye outreach.

A major part of the Health intervention program of the Foundation is the world standard Obijackson Women and Children’s Hospital (OWCH) located in Okija Anambra State. Obijackson Women & Children’s Hospital is staffed by some of the best-qualified teams of paediatricians, Obstetrics/Gynaecology, medical, nursing and non-medical personnel. Our state-of-the-art laboratory, ultra-modern patient wards, well-equipped operating theatres and well-stocked pharmacy with our world class clinical team, give Obijackson Children’s Hospital an unparalleled edge in pediatric care. We are also very proud of our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which is equipped with world standard advanced neonatology incubators, ventilators (life support machines), multi-parameter monitors and other required equipment. The blood Bank is also of international standard providing life-saving blood products/components on request.

Above all the hospital collaborates with highly experienced medical doctors from international institutions in the United States of America, notably in neonatology and paediatric endocrinology.

Social Welfare and Rehabilitation – Nine Rehabilitation Homes in Nigeria have over the years enjoyed tremendous support from the Foundation. These homes include: Adaeze’s Place, Ihiala; Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled, Old and Tramps (RECDOT), Ozubulu; Jesus Abandoned Home, Oraifite; St. Joseph’s School for the Deaf and Dumb, Oraifite; St. Joseph’s Home, Fegge Onitsha and Home for the Mentally Challenged, Nteje; all in Anambra State. Others are Juvenile Correctional Centre (Mercy Home), Ibadan; Lagos State Govt. Social Welfare Centre, Ikorodu, Lagos and Special Education Centre, Oji River, Enugu State. Furthermore, the Foundation supports the inmates of the following prisons, Ikoyi and Kirikiri Female Prisons in Lagos State; Onitsha, Nnewi, Awka and Aguata Prisons in Anambra State. The Foundation provides support ranging from monthly cash allowance, staff salaries, foodstuff, provisions and sanitary materials.

Environment Program – Maintenance of a clean and healthy environment, which promotes health and wealth, has been one of the objectives of the Obijackson Foundation. Consequently, a new initiative, termed The Environment Unit, another arm of the Obijackson Foundation, was added at the beginning of 2018 and the mandate “KEEP OKIJA CLEAN” was adopted as the process name.

The Environment Unit has two main tasks: Firstly, clearing on daily basis, all the hitherto scattered litter/refuse on Okija roads traversing the villages as well as those dumped at the market squares. This is with a view to not only keep Okija clean but also to reduce the consequent environmental hazards and invariably promote health and well-being of the citizens. Secondly, to provide the much-needed succour to the teeming unemployed youths by creating job opportunities thereby reducing youth restiveness in the community. The Unit currently has sixty-five (65) youths employed in this scheme. Fifty (50) mammoth bins had been procured and deployed in the field and evacuation is being carried out thrice weekly.

Agriculture Program – In April 2018, the Foundation’s agriculture program kicked off. This program aims to support the food-based programs with food produce, improve food security in our host communities, empower the youths by providing them with gainful employment and ultimately serve as a source of income (IGR) for the Foundation’s programs. It currently has large acres of cash crops at different stages of growth.

Early this year, 2019 the program expanded its farming activities to include animal husbandry with the piloting of a pig farm, which currently has over fifty pigs/piglets; a 500 bird capacity poultry, scheduled to take off in the next couple of weeks and a 4000 fish capacity fish farm. These are all presently manned by young men and women employed from the community.

We remain committed to these initiatives not for self-glorification but for the service of humanity and mankind. Truly we believe, there is no better way to serve God than directly impacting ‘our neighbours’

 

Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi

Group Managing Director, Nestoil, Nigeria’s foremost indigenous oil and gas company, with various other companies and also the Founder of the Obijackson Foundation