No fewer than 300 widows, women, and youths benefited from cash gifts and distributions of food items to people of Ilọra, Oyo town and other neighbouring communities in Oyo State.
The gesture, which was sponsored by the Akanbi Akanji foundation, targets mainly widows and elderly residents of the Oyo communities.
Speaking with our correspondent during the event for the distribution held in ilọra on Monday, Olusegun Abiola-Ige, the Baale of Idi-igba, Ilora, who is the founder of Akanbi Akanji foundation, narrated how the initiative started over ten years ago and has benefited thousands of people – both young and old.
According to him, his foundation had been doing medical evangelism – giving free healthcare to people – before his children came up with the idea of empowering the less privileged with food items during the festive season.
He said: “Like 10 years ago, my children called me and advised that we should be giving people something for the festive season. And I accepted the advice. Meanwhile, before that, I have one foundation called Akanbi Akanbi foundation and what we do majorly is medical evangelism.
“We go around doing free healthcare services to people. And we’ve shifted it to Idi-igba, every year during Idi-igba day, that’s when we do this medical evangelism. I do all this from my own pocket, and my children.”
He stated that the resolve to listen to the advice triggered his decision to register the foundation with the government and started by giving people live fowl and dry fish yearly.
Continuing, the founder of Akanbi Akanji foundation said the feedback from people and understanding of the current inflated cost of commodities were responsible for why they decided to, instead, give out food items and cash to each beneficiary for this year.
Baale Abiola-Ige, while speaking on modalities used in selecting beneficiaries each year, stated that the foundation requests lists of needy in the communities from religious groups like the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Muslim society, and others in ilọra and neighbouring communities.
He added by calling for partnership from individuals and organizations in order to reach more people while also advising the government to look into alleviating poverty in Nigeria through collaboration with people and organizations who are already providing support to the less privileged, on their own and are closer to the rural areas.
According to him, going forward, the foundation is considering giving priority to education by assisting children in need of assistance in form of scholarships and educational materials.
Speaking with Tribune Online, Mrs Adeleke Adesayo and Mr Adesina, who spoke on behalf of the beneficiaries, expressed their delight over the gesture and offered prayers to God for the organizers.
They, however, added that many people are needy and therefore, the government should do more to corroborate what the Akanbi Akanji foundation has been doing for them
