OVL Foundation, a non-government organization ensured that a section of the society who are usually ignored ended the year with fanfare and lots of goodies to take home at a ceremony in Lagos.
The event held at the auditorium of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries auditorium located on Ligali Ayorinde Street, Oniru, Victoria Island.
In attendance were over 500 widows, children and youths drawn from across different parts of Lagos State. A key highlight of the event included distribution of relief materials such as rice, beans, garri, oil amongst others as well as free medical checkups from professionals.
The outreach featured a special message to the beneficiaries by the Regional Overseer, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Lekki, Victoria Island, Pastor Gbenga Agboola.
A widow, Mrs Bright Godwin thank the organizers profusely for making the yuletide special for them. “A Pastor in my area directed me to this place. I was told that they help children and widows. I don’t regret coming. I’m grateful to the organizers for giving us hope and remembering us.”
To underscore the uniqueness of this year’s event, Mr Victor Laniyan, Executive Director, OVL Foundation noted, “Last year, we had this event for the first time. We had pockets of outreaches in several location and we concluded there is a need to bring people from all different areas under one roof for an end-of-the-year event. Our foundation has been catering to the widows, youths and children. The OVL foundation was set up to empower vulnerable people in the society such as the widow, children and the youths. We bring all of them together under one platform to reach them.”
“Some of the programmes, Basically, we reach them through organizing skill acquisition programmes and medical outreaches among other programmes. It doesn’t end there, for instance we are starting a skill training in fashion after which the girls will be placed on internship attachment,” Laniyan explained further.
According to him, “there’s no way we would empower women without their children as well. They are intertwined. We set up essay competitions with various prizes to encourage the children. One of the major challenge is funding which is because our society does not a culture of philanthropy.”
While pledging the sustained contribution of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Oyinlola Babatunde, Acting-Executive Secretary, OVL Foundation revealed that a lot of progress has been made within three years. According to her, the organization has been collaborating with others to reach the unreached.
She stressed, “OVL Foundation was established in 2016 with a vision to empower women, young people and children in Africa to live an economically productive life and attain their highest potential.”
