AS part of showing love and helping the destitute, two young undergraduates of the University of Ibadan; Islamiat Sadiq, and Grace Olatunji pooled resources together and engaged in a project which involved feeding the destitute, majorly women and children on the streets in the Jemibewon area of Sabo Ibadan.
The two young women with the help of Grace’s twin brother, Emmanuel, engaged in the act because they believe that everyone in the society must in their little way support those that are in need and make them happy.
Twenty-year-old Grace Olatunji is a 400 level student of Religious Studies, 21-year-old Islamiat Sadiq is a 300 level student of Forest Production and Products while 20-year-old Emmanuel Olatunji is a 400 level Animal Science student.
“We wanted to make them smile, especially the children. When you pass them on the streets, they look forlorn and overburdened, so we felt even if it is for some minutes, we can make them smile by feeding them and just giving them something to ease their burden. This was what inspired the project. We especially want the children to be happy as well as their mothers.
“This is what inspired the project, the need to give joy, especially to people that are under privileged, all human beings are entitled to healthy and happy lives. It was just our way of reassuring them that whatever the situation they are in, they are still loved and they are still a part of society.
“We wanted to encourage them that their present condition doesn’t determine what the future holds and encourage them to be joyful. When happiness is a priority and they are cared for more often by members of the society, they also see themselves as an important part of society and are willing to contribute their quota, no matter how small,” the girls said.
Speaking on the number of people that the programme touched, they said it was difficult to estimate because there were many children that turned up and because the children were difficult to control, keeping a head count was impossible.
“It is not that easy to estimate the amount of people we reached because they were mostly children and not so easy to control. It was just a random distribution but from what we had, we reached out to about a hundred people giving both monetary gifts and food,” they explained.
And because their allowances couldn’t do what they envisaged, they sought for support from many people and were lucky to get some people to lend a hand. “We financed the project with our money, money given us as allowance from home and what we could source on our own because we are students and entrepreneurs at the same time so it wasn’t all that much for us to handle but though we got finance support from two other people; Mr Lukman Olapade of Union Bank and Mr Gboyega of Moniepoint, they supported us with finances too and this made it possible,” they said.
It was not an exercise in futility as they achieved their objectives in the way the beneficiaries exhibited joy at the gifts given and the acknowledgement they got from friends and family who told them they had done well.
“Our friends and family made it worthwhile too, they lauded us for doing something to benefit others and our parents were proud when they heard what we did, though they wondered how we came about such an idea but we are happy that they believe in what we did. They encouraged us to do more and thanks to everyone who supported and encouraged us in one way or the other,” they concluded.
They expressed their willingness to continue the project with whatever they have until they can fully establish and our nongovernmental organization that will see to the alleviation of hunger amidst the poor, especially that of children, adding that it is their wish to continue if they get more sponsors.