Compassion for humanity moved me to launch Ibom food bank project – Imaobong Uboh

Imaobong Uboh is the founder of Travelers Sensitisation and Mediation Initiative, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) active in the transport sector. Recently, she set up Ibom Food Bank initiative, the social intervention arm of the NGO to distribute food items to the most vulnerable people following the outbreak of the coronavirus and the lockdown announced by the Akwa Ibom State government. In this interview with ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, she gives an insight into the motivation, her involvement in other projects and how the initiative has brought joy and succour to the poorest of the poor. Excerpts:

What motivated you to lunch the Ibom food bank initiative?

It is the compassion for humanity. I knew people were going to be hungry during the lockdown. Not being allowed to go out because of the lockdown. I have been in a situation where I was hungry; in fact, I had contemplated suicide because I had no money to buy food. I knew many people could be in a situation where they would have nothing to eat. Mine was suicidal. If you have not been there, you won’t understand. If you have been there, you will have a reason to reach out to those who may be in that situation like you.

How are you going to achieve this?

I made a facebook post seeking donations from people for us to buy food items for distribution and also for people to donate food items as well. Believe me, the response has been tremendous. Donations come from all parts of the world including Akwa Ibom State. People feel excited to contribute in helping the most vulnerable during this lockdown.

How much have you raised so far?

Before now, I used to know the total amount of money donated off hand. But when the amount came in more often, I lost count but I have the details and I am sure it is above a million Naira. The donations are coming almost on a daily basis.

What about the fear that the distribution might be politicised?

The distribution of the foodstuff is being done in an unbiased manner. People may have the fear that it would be done through party lines, that may not be the case. I told the people I am not adopting a partisan approach. I am not passing through any party structure. I am giving the food items to every vulnerable person randomly.

Are people in doubt of your transparency about this project?

So far, nobody has doubted my transparency. Trust is earned. For example, 98 percent of those making donations, I don’t know them. I have never met them. They are in various parts of the world. They saw my video post and came to my page, people said, ‘we came to your page and we have been watching you and then you have earned our confidence, you have won our trust.’  Whenever money is donated, the first thing I do, I post it on my facebook page, that we have gotten so, so amount of amount of money and I intend to do a breakdown. When you are handling a project like this, when someone sends you one thousand naira, it may not be a lot of money, it is about trust. There are people who are donating N100, 000 and more.  And someone sends you two thousand and says that is what I have; you dare not mess with that trust.

How far can this go; how long is it going to last?

In the course of the distribution of the food items, I have met people that are unemployed and by implication poor. So I thought, I could go beyond just giving them foodstuff. I could impact life skills as well that will help them earn a living still on the platform of Ibom food bank initiative. I have listed the stages of Ibom food bank initiative, the lockdown stage, which is the stage we are currently are, there is also the post lockdown stage, people will still need support even after the lockdown, and then when everything is over, there is also the exit strategy. This will involve skills acquisition, being able to meet the people in their various local government areas and then trying to impact skills that they are passionate about. It could be carpentry, tailoring, it could be make up artistry, it could be cake making, it could be paint making, it could be liquid or dry soap making,

And how do you seek to achieve this?

How I seek to achieve this is, I would want to partner with skills professionals in the state and it is at this point that everyone has to take responsibility of giving back regardless of social status. You don’t have to be a billionaire to give back to the society. I plan to partner with skilled professionals and appeal to them to voluntarily adopt people. You could say you are a tailor and that you can voluntarily adopt 10 people to train for free. That would be your own way of giving back to the society.

How feasible do you think this can be?  

Already, I have more than five professionals who have indicated interest. One is a shoe maker, he has agreed to take ten people, another said he is into agriculture, snail farming, garri processing. They said they can take five people each. We have a lady who said she can teach people Television presentation skills. Another says he would accept people for Information and Communication Technology training. Since we are on the food distribution stage, I have not yet started campaigning about it now but people have already indicated interest. I have a way of selling the ideas to the people when I start campaigning about it. Apart from the skilled professionals coming up to adopt people, I also hope to partner with the public to raise funds for us to pay and make up for those who are not adopted for the training. We can raise funds and pay for training fees for random people and then we would be going around to monitor how they are doing. After their graduation, we would buy them their required tools.

This is an elaborate programme? Can you run this on your own without a board of directors?

I have come to experience something about our people. This is not the first project that I have had. I have had like two other projects. Before this food bank initiative came because of the coronavirus, I had ‘Stop-Blackmail-Project;’ I also had ‘Stop-Cultism’ campaign, when we had issues with cultism. The thing about our people in this part of the world is that they are unnecessarily envious. When you bring a project to partner with people, they are seeing it as a way to project you. So you will find out that they will intentionally make the project not to work. This happens when you are not paying people to attend meetings. People don’t want to start with you from the scratch. They only want to come and identify with it when it is a success story.  So, the two other projects, they succeeded in making me suspend them for now. I am going to make sure that those ideas and projects don’t die because there is a significant impact we needed to achieve. So, when this one came, there is no way I would have wanted any one to stifle my dream project. I have a non-governmental organisation, Travelers and Mediation Association; I am now using the NGO to execute the project. Sadly, in this part of the world, when you want to travel fast, you travel alone. There are some projects you need to do at a particular time. It is like coming to talk about donation for coronavirus after the lockdown, nobody will answer you. So, I had to run with the speed of it. I am not working alone. I have people who are working with me.

How are you going to reach the people in all the local government areas?

I have the capacity to go round all the local government areas but it depends on the donation.  For instance, I have approached some political leaders in the state, I went to them when the pandemic broke, some of them have supported it and some said they are going to work with it. But the next thing is they took trailers of foodstuff to their villages. It then dawned on me that I have been able to impart this culture in them. That is the best part of it, whether they work with me or not. Again, when I called some of them, they said one has to take the food items to the villages and people would be saying ‘why are strangers coming to distribute food when we have people we elected.’  Personally, I can go to all the local government areas, what does it take, apart from packaging the food items and taking them to the villages?  I can do one local government or two in one day.

When you go to the villages to distribute the food packs, how do people receive you?

People are always very excited. People are not suspicious. The level of lack and hunger in the villages is much. When you meet a hungry man and you want to give him food, the first thing that comes to a hungry man’s mind is not that you are giving him poison. It is not whether the food is poisonous.  The first thing that comes to his mind is how to eat and be satisfied. When we go out there, they are very excited. They run after out vehicles, they plead for more. Nobody is scared of anything.

You also run an NGO; what is the core objective of the organisation?

It is called Travelers Sensitisation and Mediation Initiative. The focus is on the Nigerian Transport Sector and Nigerian travelers. We are looking at how we can pick one mishap in the sector and improve on it. It focuses on the challenges that travelers face, how to ensure global best practices.  For example, most travelers don’t even know their rights. They go to the airports, they are not treated properly. We have to sensitise them because before you start demanding for your rights, you must first know them. Again, what is expected of our roads, most of them don’t have provisions for cycling; we should build our roads the way it is built elsewhere in the world. We should build roads with pedestrian and cycling paths to encourage trekking and cycling. There are few NGOs in that sector.

What successes have you recorded with the NGO?

We have done sensitisation programmes with many groups and agencies including the Federal Road Safety Corps, the World Bank supported projects and others. We have done a lot of work in partnership with key agencies in the transport sector. Again, Ibom food bank is part of it because everybody who has been asked to stay at home is a traveler because traveling is basically moving from one point to another. We needed to reach out to all those who were asked to restrict their movements since they cannot go to fend for themselves. So, Ibom food bank is a social intervention programme of Travelers Sensitisaton and Mediation Initiative.

What is your advice to the people of the state?

The lockdown is for our own good.  We are trying to curb the spread of the virus. So, we should try as much as we can to adhere to the guidelines, wash our hands as many times as possible. And on the food bank, I am calling on people who have, to donate so that we can take it to more people at home and keep them safe.

You are more or less an activist, what is giving you the energy for it?

I think it has to do with my growing up experience which had to do with intimidation. I never had a voice while growing up. I was always shouted down and intimidated. I think that is where it all came from. Growing up, I had always wanted to have my own voice. Whenever I see a social vice, I have to speak up and represent the people who have no voice.