Her Excellency, Dcns. Omolewa Yetunde Ahmed hails from Ibadan, Oyo State, South – West Nigeria and is The First Lady of Kwara State.
She started her education at the University of Ibadan Staff School and later proceeded to Victory Nursery and Primary School where she obtained her Primary School Leaving Certificate. Her Secondary School education was at the Prestigious Saint Teresa’s College, Ibadan. Then she advanced to Kwara State Polytechnic where she obtained National Diploma in Banking & Finance and Higher National Diploma from the Kano State Polytechnic.
Omolewa Ahmed is a hardworking woman who has business interest in catering, event management and commodity trading.
She is a good Christian who loves God passionately. A kindhearted woman who is selfless and genuinely caring. All her life, she has been involved in one humanitarian work or the other. The assumption of office of her husband, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed as the Executive Governor of Kwara State in 2011 widened the scope of her humanitarian activities as she assumed the role of the “mother of the state”.
In pursuit of her passion to touch lives positively, Her Excellency founded the LEAH Foundation as a vehicle to deal with Socio- Economic and Health issues of the generality of Kwara people- women, the youth and widows.
LEAH FOUNDATION defines the character of Omolewa Ahmed. Through the foundation, she has brought succor to hundreds of thousands of people especially the widows and aged, physically challenged persons, people with health challenges, the extremely poor and vulnerable etc. A very simple and approachable person who has made LEAH one big family through her approach to work. She is an active team player and makes everyone feel secure in her presence.
Organizations and Institutions in recognition of her activities, bestowed on her several awards amongst which are: Grand matron of the Girls Brigade, Kwara State chapter, National Youth Council of Nigeria honorary award, Chancellor Emeritus of the UNESCO club for global education, award of excellence in child and women care by the World Brand Congress, award of excellence by the association of govt general medical and dental practitioners and many others.
All over the world, women empowerment is seen as an obligation not only for government but individuals who have the wherewithal and blessed enough to be able to assist the downtrodden. While poverty has no gender, the pang of it could be more intense and debilitating for women especially those who have children to cater for. Without mincing words, the wish of any mother is to put smiles on the faces of her children; to see that their needs are met as much as possible and to mould them to greatness.
This dream cannot be realized in want and in abject poverty. Besides, their potentials to contribute to the social and economic activities in the community would be stifled. Thus, women empowerment is not only a means to build and protect the future of the children but an opportunity to enhance women’s status and propel them to contribute their quota to social and economic development of a nation.
The First Lady of Kwara State, Omolewa Ahmed through her LEAH Charity Foundation has toured the 16 local government areas of the state on a special empowerment programme for women. The empowerment was aimed at uplifting the living standards of womenfolk in the state.
The special empowerment programme by her was therefore endorsed as a gesture capable of promoting the status of women in the state. It was an all-encompassing programme focusing on the wellbeing and wellness of the women. It was not ethno-religious as the beneficiaries cut across residents of the state irrespective of their religion, tribe or state of origin.
Prior to the empowerment programme, the LEAH Charity foundation, worried by the danger posed to women by the deadly cancer disease which had claimed the lives of the high and the mighty in Nigeria, had initiated a cancer campaign aimed at sensitizing women in the state on the danger of cancer. To the foundation, prevention is better than cure. Besides, the message passed to all as attested to by medical practitioners, was that though deadly the disease can be prevented with early detection and treatment.
The sensitization was taken further through the establishment of cancer screening centres across the 16 Local Governments where no fewer than 8, 886 have been screened. During the celebration of world cancer day in February, the First Lady had urged Nigerians to disabuse their minds from the myths that; “cancer should not be discussed, that it has no symptoms, cannot be treated and those affected cannot get care”.
Other interventions by the foundation include the Omolewa Safe Motherhood initiative at Alapa Cottage Hospital which records over 30 births in a month with zero mortality; adoption of 954 orphans, the clinic on wheels initiative where 1.38million people have been attended to; 29 basic breast and cervical cancer screening centres.
LEAH Foundation was founded by Her Excellency, Dcns. Omolewa Ahmed as a Non-Governmental, Non-Religious, Non-partisan and Not-for-profit Organization, established to raise awareness and spur affirmative action on issues affecting the survival and development of women and children in particular and humanity in general, through a well-thought-out, realistic and sustainable strategy. The Foundation is based in Ilorin, Kwara State, North-Central Nigeria.
The establishment of LEAH Foundation was inspired by our Founder’s experiences with people challenged by their situations in life and the strong conviction that Life Empowered Anchors Hope from which the acronym LEAH was coined.
LEAH Foundation is registered with the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission under part C (Incorporated Trustees) of the Company and Allied matters Act No. 1 of 1990 with Registration Number C. A. C/ IT /NO. 45529.
LEAH Foundation’s fight against underdevelopment, based on its SHE Model, which translates to Social Welfare, Health and Education is driven by the belief that the world can be a better place if every stakeholder contributes in the struggle to eradicate the development deficits confronting the world.
Armed with the vision of becoming the reference point in social work in Nigeria and beyond, LEAH Foundation has since its establishment been able to make a lot of difference in its key areas of interest and in reference to its vision and projection plans to do more.
For Her Excellency, Dcns. Omolewa Yetunde Ahmed, being a Humanitarian is a ministry!
Kemi Ajumobi
