Kunle Adelabu
iCare Foundation, the operational platform of Hon. Babajimi Benson, which is primarily being used for social and economic empowerment of people of Ikorodu Federal Constituency, has partnered with ‘We Stand’ in given food items to people.
300 vulnerable residents benefitted from the bags of food items that were distributed at Federal Constituency office of the lawmaker in Ikorodu on Saturday, January 15, 2020.
Adeola Adeyanju, Coordinator, Local Government Outreaches for ‘We Stand’, speaking with THE IMPACT, stated that the body plan to continue with the partnership since iCare has an effective platform to reach Ikorodu audience.
“We plan to sustain the partnership with iCare. The goal for us is to identify partners across the country. We feel that iCare has a phenomenon arrangement already ongoing in Ikorodu. So, whatever it is that we plan to do in Ikorodu, we are going to channel it through iCare going forward. In some other areas, we partner with foundations to build boreholes, medicals, etc”, he stated.
“Essentially, we deal with people who already have a proven system rather than doing it on our own just because we want to take the glory, that’s not our goal”.
While stating that food outreach is one of his group’s programmes, Adeyanju commended iCare for the orderliness in their arrangement.
“This is very orderly and well arranged. Hopefully, we can learn from this partnership as we go forward. For ‘We Stand’, the food outreach is just an expression. The idea of ‘We Stand’ is to help every citizen of Nigeria to stand on their own and join hands in making Nigeria better. We cannot be waiting on the government to do everything for us”, he said while stating the philosophy behind the humanitarian initiative.
“At “We Stand”, we are regular people who have regular jobs and we have chosen to do this from our own funding. We are not looking for anybody to fund us. We are taking money from our purse to run it.
“We think that if we do this long enough, we can inspire lot of Nigerians to stand and do something similar. It doesn’t have to be something big. It can be on their streets or within their families”.
Mr Adeyanju also stated that the group is planning to reach out to people on medical and also give out education materials to students.
“Apart from this food outreach, we also plan to do medical outreach in some places where the requirements are more of medical than food. We also plan to do a back-to-school programme in September across the local government.
“We are going to be distributing sandals, school bags and other things that we can help with. It is our way of helping in making Nigeria better and improving people’s living condition.
Meanwhile, Hon. Babajimi Benson, the lawmaker representing the Ikorodu Federal Constituency and the initiator of iCare foundation, while commending ‘We Stand’ for providing food items for vulnerable people in Ikorodu, told our reporter that they are partnering with the group because their philosophy aligns with that of iCare.
“We are partnering with an NGO called “We Stand”. We realized that their philosophy and aim align with ours which is caring. They are providing food for the vulnerable people using our platform. We have been able to get vulnerable people from the nooks and crannies of Ikorodu and presented a rich bag and other things for our constituents. We thank them immensely for this”, Hon. Benson stated.
“We are always welcoming partnership as long as your value aligns with ours. We are doing this with them for the first time and the feedback that we are getting is that they are touched because they can see the joy and happiness on faces of the beneficiaries. I think they will be willing to have partnership with us in the future”.
Speaking on how beneficiaries are picked for iCare foodbank on monthly basis, the two-term lawmaker stated that nominations are usually done on social media and allocations are also given to religious groups and Community Development Associations (CDAs).
“In our selection model, we give opportunity to people online to nominate vulnerable people and that makes it transparent and accountable. We also give to Churches, Mosques and CDAs. They know who is vulnerable and we rely on their good faiths”, he stated.
Hon. Benson, whose efforts towards eradicating hunger in Ikorodu was recognized by the United Nations last year, stated that iCare foodbank was designed to provide food for those that cannot afford to feed their families as part of the Sustainable Development Goal.
“One of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is the eradication of poverty and if we are not eradicating poverty, we are not giving good governance. People are hungry and we always provide stop gap measures to enable our people enjoy dividends of democracy”.
He also stated that his foundation has been collaborating with the UN in eradicating poverty.
“After the recognition by the United Nations, we were featured on their magazine’s cover page and we have received lots of collaboration. We also deal with them by providing them with data and working with them on sustainable initiative as well. We are having a follow-up meeting with them this year”.
