My name is Olufunke Olabode and I am 25 years old. I am the initiator of the Girl Child Initiative. I am a graduate of Adekunle Ajasin University with B.A Hons from the department of English and Literary Studies currently undergoing my Masters program at Nassarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria. I am a teacher and a writer, I co-authored the book called Positive Forces with Mr Adekola Olushola. I am a poet, a voice over artist, graphic designer, a photographer and more as the case maybe.
The Girl Child Initiative is my dream my God given assignment on earth. I started it in the year 2017 officially on January 1st, through a blog which at the time was girlchildinitiative.blog.com. We started with just writing articles on the website to inspire and teach young girls, teenagers and ladies out there that they can be better, different and stand out in their respective niches.
Going forward to 20th September of 2017, we had the first ever outreach tour which happened to be in a school called Mount Carmel Girls Secondary School, Ikare-Akoko, Ondo state, Nigeria. It was the maidan edition of the Organization where we invited guest speakers. We spoke to about 1000 girls which happens to be the image you see on most of our advertisements and awareness fliers; the girls on brown uniforms and berets? That’s them, the ones that awakened the Lion in me. Most images used for our graphics aren’t just any random pictures we pick online, they are pictures gotten from the Girl Child Outreach mostly. These set of girls at Ikare were the first to receive physical presents from the organization. As at that time, we had about eight or seven members; the executives which consists of the financial secretary, the director, the social media manager, the treasurer, the guest speaker (Ebisidor Ann), founder of the child smile foundation and myself.
In that program, we shared about 150 copies of the book written and published by Akinyemi Olaleke. We shared pads, exercise books, snacks, drinks and other type of presents especially to those that participated in one activity or the other. Cooked food,Jollof rice precisely and drinks was also shared among the school staff on set that day. The program lasted for about three hours. During those period, I was a student with almost nothing, but I believed and held on to my dreams.
We sought for donations from people online for the program. Remarkably, we got about 10,000 naira from donations and outside sources. We had a particular foundation called the helpingchild foundation (you can check the foundation on Fb/Instagram) the CEO of that foundation is Olubukola. The foundation sent 10 packs of pads to us. But, those pads were not used for that particular program because we couldn't get them until some time in the year 2018.
That maiden program was single-handedly sponsored by myself; Olufunke Olabode, my mother, my mother friends and other people I and my members could reach out to help raise funds for the program. Of course, I couldn't have done it alone because we reached out to about thousand girl children. By the grace of God, we were able to give and impact each and every girl child something, both physically and mentally. With feeding and presentations of honorarium to our guest speaker. I really can't exactly state how we did it as God truly helped and saw us through.
In the year 2018, in September 20th and 21st, we went to the Vocational and Rehabilitation Center in Bwari, Abuja. We had about 15 members at that time that went there to give pads, jotters and gifts to the inmates of the rehabilitation center. Surprisingly, bulk members that benefitted from this rural outreach tour were actually boys because the girls at the rehab at that time were in such critical conditions that they won't be allowed to come and see the visitors. They couldn't handle it as they were so unstable. As at that time, we did not seek for any external donations. All the money spent was gotten from the initiator's purse, her mother's purse,Mrs Gbemisola Olabode and a particular founder of the Organization who prefers to be named anonymous.
Moving further in the year 2019, we had already gotten the pads from helping hands foundation. We actually got them in 2018 but didn't use them until 2019. We shared those pads on the street of Keffi, Nassarawa state in May, 2019 where we tagged the Rural Outreach Tour known as ROT as Rural Outreach walk. We invited the Federal Road Safety Corps, we went to the Emir's palace and tour the town to present these gifts (pads and jotters) to young ladies of keffi. We reached out to more than a hundred persons that day. We also shared snacks and drinks for the volunteers that came for the program about eight ladies.We had some donations from some of my friends at that particular time for that particular program.
Fast forward to the year 2020, the covid-19 prevalent period, we couldn't go out to do a physical rural outreach tour but we did an online program where we invited again the first girl child initiative speaker; Mrs. Ebisidor Azu to be an online speaker. We also invited the present general secretary; Sharon Okon to be a speaker and myself too with pictures and details on the website. We shared recharged cards, we gave out pads and jotters to some of the members, no matter how far they were, we sent it out to them and ensured they got it. And aside from this particular online program, the initiator selected some particular young girls whom she is mentally, physically and financially mentoring on her own (names not disclosed ) in different states (Calabar, Keffi, Akungba, Abuja etc) here in Nigeria and also one girl in the United Kingdom. These are young girls under my mentorship that call me at the slightest provocation and that have things going on with them. I give out care, funds and all of that to them when necessary which is not from the organization's purse but mine.
To get full details and pictures of each of the aforementioned programs held by the organization, you can click on the link showing.
https://www.girlchildinitiative.com/?m=1
This year, 2021, we have been meaning to have a program for September this year. As the initiator of the foundation, I couldn't raise the estimated amount needed for the year program. Since we must fulfill the purpose of this organization, to help young girls out there, we began to seek for donations and started a fund raising sometimes in October for the program proposed to come up 2nd and 3rd of November. But unfortunately, not a single donation came in for the said program.
Regrettably, I hereby announce that the program has been postponed till further notice. I would appreciate, though, if we can make donations or link me to someone that can make donations because the number of children we're reaching out too is over a thousand. And as a single entity working in Nigeria, I cannot singlehandedly finance such a program. So, I am soliciting for help, donations, sponsorship and any other help I can get. It will definitely go a long way in helping to fulfill the organization’s purpose and achieving my dreams of reaching out to as many girl children out there as possible for the sake of humanity.
I hope with this has been enlightening to you and you probably understand what the Girl Child Initiative is all about and you're motivated to stretch out helping hands.
We would sure keep you abreast of the donations coming in and update you on our program.
Thanks for always.
God bless GCI,
God bless Nigeria.
Olufunke Olabode
Initiator, GCI.
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