-Felix Douglas
The Faith Iyowuna Ikekhide Foundation (FIIF) has unveiled its next empowerment programs as part of its noble contribution to the implementation of the millennium development goals as bedrock for sustainable growth in Nigeria in particular and the world in general.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, the Chairman of FIIF, Mrs. Iyowuna Ikekhide said: “We give glory to the Almighty God for His divine help, grace and favour to us as a Foundation in making us relevant and significant in service in the past year of our operation.”
“The 11th of May 2023 will mark one year anniversary of FIIF as well as my 51st birthday. Hence we feel that there is no better way to appreciate God than being a blessing to humanity and living in absolute gratitude to God.”
“Consequently, we shall be having the second edition of the Lagos Children Empowerment conference on the 11th of May 2023 as part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR); a channel through which we give back to the society by investing in the spiritual, educational, vocational and social development of at least two thousand (2,000) students from twelve (12) Lagos State Government schools and seven (7) private schools in Alimosho local government area of Lagos State.”
The theme of the conference is DESTINY DISCOVERY and will be in two forms namely, vocational and mentorship empowerment sessions.
The vocational empowerment is planned to train the students with practical hands-on experience in at least nineteen (19) practical skills including, how to make Ankara bags, fish rolls, cakes, egg rolls, buns, donuts, tiger nuts, as well as shoe making , soap making , hair barbing , hair plating , cap making among others.
The mentorship empowerment sessions will be anchored by notable resource persons who are proficient in various fields of life endeavours. They will share practical life experiences and charge, with the objective of helping the students to discover, harness and deploy their God given potentials, skills and gifts towards making themselves valuable to their immediate society in particular and the Nation at large. The distinguished facilitators for this conference are: Pastor J F Odesola, Continental Overseer of RCCG Continent 3, Lagos who is the key note speaker, Barrister Joy Ogbonnaya- International President of Pleasant Gathering from Enugu State, who is the guest speaker, Pastor (Mrs) Faith Ikekhide, President of FIIF and Dr. Andy Ikekhide, President of Great Commission (TGC) Christian Network who doubles as the Chairman of FIIF and representatives of Lagos state Ministry of Education.
The program will also feature creative dancing competition and recitation geared towards the physical, social and mental development of the students.
The conference promises to be a worthwhile strategic investment towards the spiritual, social, vocational and educational development of the students towards making them people of value, integrity, honesty with the fear of God as part of contribution to engendering positive societal change for posterity
Faith Ikekhide told journalists that the event for secondary schools students is both for skill acquisition and mentorship. It is a combined event using one stone to kill two birds mentoring them to be useful for the society. The first session is vocational with several facilitators to handle it and they are put into different groups. The students will demonstrate, practice and showcase all they have learnt. The key thing is sharing life experiences.
On his part, Dr. Andy Ikekhide stated further that the dropout of school children are also encouraged to be involved in skill acquisition in order to be valuable to the society instead of becoming nuisance and security threat.
Each of the programme are tailored specifically for different things in FIIF pillars of operation which is called SHEEP. S- Stands for skill and acquisition and other healthcare services including empowerment.
The programs also involve partnership and collaboration with other foundations and government agencies.
Although it is capital intensive to sustain before seeking investment for people to invest they have to see the results of what FIIF is doing. The drive is to make the lives of less privileged better.
Faith Ikekhide disclosed that after the first edition which was held last year, there were positive feedbacks and schools are excited as FIIF gets reports from facilitators. As part of measuring the impact, parents also retrain their children to improve on what they have learnt. Principals of schools have also sent letters of appreciation.
Dr. Andy Ikekhide added that to show global presence, FIIF is duly registered in the United States of America and what the Foundation does is part of Millennium Development Goals which is not specific to a particular country because it is a global affair.
Part of future plan is to make the Foundation to be on the United Nation platform, through UNICEF, it has a global vision but is one step at a time. FIIF will be consistent in order to make the programme sustainable.
To balance up with spiritual matters, Faith Ikekhide schedule time to pray for the children and the main passion is that the destinies of these younger ones have been tampered and some of them get involved in so many vices because of peer group. It is the spiritual that takes everyone to its destination including motivational talks which was approved from educational districts. They are taught to be disciplined, have integrity, honesty with excellence performance in the class.
Dr. Andy Ikekhide pointed out that sustainability of the program is significant which makes FIIF to be strategic in its approach by advocating for support to the government in its operations. Collaboration is key to sustainability with like-minded individuals, institutions, missions and government.
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