Gbonegun Ololade-Olasupo, a humanitarian, trained journalist, digital marketer and founder of Gift for the Needy and Youth Empowerment Initiative, is a woman known for her passion to make lives better for disadvantaged people and driving causes that aid human development. In this interview with YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE, she speaks on fighting for justice, women in leadership, getting finance for projects and other issues.
You are known to take up the cases of the less privileged and downtrodden. What is your motivation?
Essentially, I’m moved by the need to have a world or society where we won’t have such a class of people. I have strong empathy for the poor in our society but, unfortunately, the resources to help are always limited. Also, the fact that so many people are willing to help others as long as they have a trusted hand has kept me going.
Nigerians are lovely people who care for others in need but most of them too lack resources to extend help to others. There are many ways to help out in our society. It can come through direct actions like volunteering at religious organisations and non-profit organizations like ours, sponsoring education, feeding the less privileged and helping one individual or the other make a small change for the better. It often breaks my heart to see that the number of downtrodden in the society keeps increasing on daily basis and the economic situation in the country has not really improved over the years to reduce the figure.
I think that government at various levels needs to do more to help the poor. The private sector also has to support the needy by setting up a certain amount in their yearly budget to assist those who genuinely need help in the society.
How easy is the fight for justice and how affordable?
Fighting for justice is not an easy thing to achieve in modern society. It is a very tasking job, where you encounter all forms of criticisms and opposition both physical and in the other realm.
As someone is trying to fight injustice, there are other people somewhere who are also ready to frustrate your effort. Besides the fact that it is tasking, it is also expensive. So many actors are involved in the cause of fighting for justice, you have to bring them together, get your facts, get your evidence to prove that injustice was actually meted on you or anyone involved. The time involved in fighting for justice is also a long one; like the popular statement, the ‘Wheels of justice grinds slowly, but grinds fine’.
How easy is it to get funds to finance the causes you take on?
Hmmmm! Great question; I must tell you that it is not easy at all. It requires strong courage, persistence and you have to plead, plead and plead. My large following on social media is a plus to the cause by the grace of God. Still, I have to specifically reach out to people who are our regular supporters to give them details of requests and let them know the case has been verified by me ‘@gifttheneedy’ and that it is not a scam. That is after doing that on the timeline.
Some will be convinced and send in donations, others will ignore and some will promise and will never fulfill it. So it is a mixed bag of hope and dismay and requires exceptional determination to keep on with the mandate.
What challenges do you face?
So many challenges, but I’ll say the major one is finance. This makes our organisation turn down a lot of requests. For instance, cases that have to do with terminal illness are not usually accepted. The reason is that they always involve huge amounts of money and once I agree to take such a case up, I have automatically become the god of the patient or the entire family. It may never end.
It’s always very difficult for me to make them understand, when our organisation is unable to raise the needed funds.
Another challenge is people automatically turning the organisation to their source of income, forgetting that there are other people that also need help. For instance, after paying hospital bills of a newly delivered mother and baby, the husband will call after some weeks to request foodstuffs for the family or even ask for house rent. At other times, he may call our organisation to help him look for a job.
Verification of some of the requests is also a big challenge, especially requests that are from places which are not close by. Before I go out to source for funds, I make sure I verify to be sure the requester is not trying to scam people of their hard earned money. When I get a request from somewhere like Zamfara, we don’t have volunteers there, so to verify such a case will be very difficult.
How do you cope with the huge number of needy people that come your way?
You are right; the requests are many on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. With the development, our organisation considers so many things before taking up a request. Sometimes, it is not easy to turn down a request but we have to explain to the requesters the reasons we can’t take up their requests.
How do you decide on cases to take up?
Depending on the case, but specifically, we consider metrics such as the age of the patient, proximity, the amount required and medical report.
What are your thoughts on women having streams of income?
Oh…I love it. Gone are the days when a single source of income was sustainable. Cost of living crisis is worsening almost every day and so it is crucial for women to have multiple streams of income. We must note that a single book does not make up the Bible too. Having multiple streams of income is achievable for women because we are naturally wired to multi-task. Women are good managers of home; we take good care of our husband, the children and the society sometimes simultaneously. We can achieve anything with determination and support of God.
For me, I don’t really fancy women who depend on their husband for everything. We are supposed to support them in everything both morally and financially. When a woman has multiple sources of income, she’ll be able to contribute to the management of the home without complaint. Also, the entire burden of her own family will not be on the husband and there will be peace in the family.
Can women be good leaders?
I will say 100 percent. Like I mentioned earlier, women are naturally wired to multi-task. Women are good managers of homes, men and resources. We take good care of our husbands, the children and the society sometimes simultaneously and with perfect results. Women can be great leaders. We have seen the likes of former Liberia Presidents, Helen Johnson Sirleaf, as female presidents; female bank Chief Executive Officers; female ministers in Nigeria; the current Director General of World Trade Organisation (WTO), Mrs. Ngozi Okojo-Nweala and others who are doing amazingly well.
How can women deal with bullying on social media without losing their integrity?
This is really becoming a great concern for so many people. It is up to individual women not to let anyone see them as less important in society whether online or offline. As a woman, I don’t give in to bullies on social media. Women need to be tough in mind to withstand any form of intimidation by a crowd whose motive most of the time is to lessen their space of influence in the society. Women deserve every form of respect in this world. So, when you are bullied, don’t cow away. Face the bullies and let them know they can’t intimidate you.
Also, women should also try to support other women whenever they are being bullied. We should look out for ourselves and also make sure we are not also bullies.
What are your thoughts about women in politics?
It is a good one. I love the fact women are getting more involved in politics in Nigeria because we can’t leave all the space for men. Without competing with the other gender, women need to play a more active role in the political space because women are more wired to manage society, men and resources better. I can also describe myself as a politician too because in recent times, I have developed keen interest in politics and an active role in the politics of Nigeria. Women are the ones that really know how to put things in order. We are the ones that can easily recognise the needs of a community; so more women getting involved in politics will bring enormous growth and good development for Nigeria. I believe very soon, in Nigeria, we’ll have female governors and presidents.
Do you think there is restriction on women in the professional circle in Nigeria?
There is no restriction for women to grow in the professional circle. We can only be the limiting factor for our personal or professional growth. Whatever a woman sets her mind to achieve is achievable. Gone are the days when that was the reality of women. Now, there is no limit to what women can do. We now have more female engineers leading professional organisations like Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN), and very soon, a woman will lead the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) among others. Women are playing leading roles in professions such as medicine, law, even check out the technology world, women are doing amazingly well. So, I don’t think there is restriction on women in professional circles at all. Whatever we envision to become as women, we can achieve it, there is no limit to the height a woman can attain in life.
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