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Health Project
Nigeria is the world’s fifth largest oil producer, and at the same time one of the world’s poorest countries. Around 59% of the population is illiterate and lives in rural areas, where they lack the most basic services and hospitals. She had begun to ask herself how to get people from rural areas to hospital and how to improve health care for those people.
For her project, she contacted a Nigerian doctor who was working in the United States to see if she could obtain donations of medicines. At the same time, in Nigeria, she hired a volunteer nurse full time and three other volunteers. To these she added a doctor, who agreed to give two days a week to voluntary work. At first, they planned to hand out the medicines free of charge to whoever needed them, but then people would likely not value them, thinking that the medicines could not possibly be as good or as effective if they did not have to pay for them. So now they sell the medicines for a symbolic price. The volunteer nurse visits around 50 people per day.
The results of the project have been very satisfactory, as it is believed to have had a significant impact on the society in which these people live and on their quality of life. It also has given voluntary work a higher profile and made the government more aware of the fact that the population needs better medical care. The volunteers give particular attention to people with HIV/AIDS in order to prevent further infections.
Oyebisi Oluseyi Babatunde – Focal Point for International Conference Volunteers (Nigeria) and Focal Point International Volunteer Day (IVD) in Nigeria.
He is a young Nigerian Youth leader. He is a graduate of the Federal College of Forestry - Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, while he was in college; He was President of the Agricultural Extension and Management Students Association. He is a member of more than 15 active civic organizations and has worked over the years with activists and organizations around the globe from Africa, America and Europe on issues concerning development, Youth, Gender violence, HIV/AIDS, and the Millennium Development Goals, among others.
Rural Voices of Youth Forum Project
He started the Rural Voices of Youth Forum in Nigeria to reach out to young people in rural areas who do not have internet access. Every month, Seyi travels with volunteers to rural areas in Nigeria to have discussions with young people and record their thoughts and feelings on a given topic like Water Sanitation, ICT in the rural areas and Sustainable environment.
During their visits Rural Youths are taught the basics of the computer and their thoughts on varying global issues were sought after which they are posted on the UNICEF voices of Youth Forums website (www.unicef.org/voy/takeaction/takeaction_1115.html for other Youths world wide to see. This has been very helpful as most of the Rural Youths now take up Community development initiatives on their own. For example in Olorunda Abaa village the Youths there having had an encounter with the Rural voices of youth forum team now have their own youth network which they call community development youth forum and they have successfully executed projects such as construction of bridge and cultivating a farmland that would serve as a source of funding for their projects.
Sir. David Osunde – Founder Sir David Osunde Foundation (SDOF)
Established in 1993, it is one of the foremost Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Nigeria that was established to assist the physically challenged.
SDOF takes a multi-pronged approach to empower the physically challenged through: moral support and inspiration, educational and employment opportunities, housing, direct financial support, and public and government awareness campaigns.
Naomi Koko Project
Naomi Koko was born April 4, 1975, the second child of a family of seven. When she was seven years old, she noticed a bump on her foot. As Naomi grew, the bump grew and became increasingly bothersome, but the family could not afford medical attention for her. By the time Naomi was 18, the pain from her foot kept her from helping with farming. Since she felt like a burden on her family and saw no future for herself in the village, at 20 she left for the city determined to get an education and make a future for herself, even if she had to go into prostitution. (Prostitution bring about N5000 or ~$35 a ‘trick’, which is about half a month’s salary for many people. The HIV/ AIDS among prostitutes is over 75%).
Naomi enrolled in Kaduna Polytechnic and found a way to support herself by supplying bush meat to restaurants. However, after two years her foot became too painful for her to work and continue her studies. With the help of her brother and uncle, she had her foot examined at the hospital. They found a large tumor on her foot and tried to remove it through an operation. However, the operation wound never healed but festered and rotted. Naomi carried the open wound for 9 months until she received more medical treatment. By that time, Naomi was wasting away and could not even feed herself. The doctor said that the cancer had spread from her foot and it needed to be amputated. At 25 years old, Naomi’s lost her leg.
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