Mr Olatunji Awodiran is a philanthropist par excellence and founder of a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Leovest Reassuring Hands Foundation (LRHD). In this interview with Gbenga Olumide, he explained why he set up the foundation and his contributions to the development of his community, among others. Excerpts:
What do you think can be done to ensure that poverty is reduced to the barest minimum among the people of Nigeria?
I believe there’s a lot to be done on that but first, for a country that consumes as much as we do, we need to increase food production and encourage local products, and then grow cottage industries in the country. We have natural resources we need to work on and tap from. Let us start with the infrastructure that will drive agriculture. Secondly, on population control, we need to go to the rural areas on medical outreaches to educate the people on birth control and family planning.
People are of the opinion that having a foundation or NGO is an avenue to harness wealth from foreign agencies. How do you react to this?
I wouldn’t blame the people who say that, because the bad have mostly outnumbered the good, but let us keep in mind that there are genuinely passionate people who care about alleviating poverty in their communities. In my case, I have been in situations where I didn’t have and needed help badly; sometimes I didn’t get it, other times I got help, not from family members but from strangers who lent helping hand, and now that I have, thank God, I want to be that helping hand for as many people as I can, because what’s the purpose of that wealth that we acquire that we cannot help those around us that are needy? We came to this world empty handed and will leave empty.
How long have you been caring for the underprivileged in your community?
Helping one’s community does not have to necessarily be about bringing bags of rice, clothes or cash, you can help your neighbour with a thousand naira or less; it could even be with a service. Imagine a hundred or five hundred people helping the underprivileged around them with a thousand naira at intervals, you would agree with me that that would go a long way. So, I have been helping my community for a while but only started on a large scale recently.
Do you think distributing rice and other foodstuff only can solve the problems facing the people?
Not at all, but I believe it goes a long way. There’s this Yoruba saying that translates into “once hunger is out of the way, your problems are solved”. But this can only reduce our people’s pain to the barest minimum. Like I said earlier, helping the community is not a one-man job, we all have our parts to play, as well as the government and I believe that government can’t solve 100 percent of its citizens’ problems. Collectively, we can make Nigeria and the world a better place. Since we’ve started this foodbank programme, we’ve been able to reach out to an average of 500 widows, the underprivileged and aged in Obokun Local Government Area of Osun State. I have been working strenuously to make sure that we do more. I am happy that God has used me, my family and friends to touch many lives.
Does your philanthropic gesture have a political undertone?
No. I am only playing my part to touch lives, show love to our people, give back to our community and I believe that giving is a habit that we don’t earn or learn. This is the only way to show love to the needy and our people back home and this is another way to connect to God, because in 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly). So, I’m giving without being reluctant. I give not because I have enough, but because I know how it feels not to have. I am also giving not because I expect anything in return, but because these are my people, and if I could, I’d liberate everyone from poverty in Nigeria.
Apart from giving foods and cash gifts, what have been your contributions to the development of your community in terms of physical projects?
Among other things, we are also planning to support the community with power supply by helping them to install transformer where they do not have and also helping pupils that are out of school financially by supplying them uniforms, notebooks, textbooks and textbooks, as well as providing for their PTA fees. I can tell you for free that there are a lot of pupils whose parents cannot afford to buy them the materials needed in school.
