Mrs. Olufunso Amosun,Former First Lady, noticed that there is a need for the spouses of government functionaries to have a medium of getting together to support one another whilst their spouses are away at work, supporting Former Governor, Senator lbikunle Amosun in his Mission to Rebuild Ogun State. This support takes the government functionaries away from their various homes late into the night on a regular basis and leaves us spouses and children at home wondering what to do with ourselves. During the 2011 Christmas Holidays, Mrs. Amosun noticed that there was no forum for the children of government functionaries to meet or interact, a high influx of our youths came home for Christmas from their various places of learning and left without getting to even meet one another. She also noticed that save for official functions and outings that sometimes brought spouses together,briefly, there was no main forum for mothers and spouses generally to interact productively. This brought about the realization that there was need to create an avenue for harmony and interaction among families of government functionaries. This was the beginning of SOSGFA. On the 7th of March, 2012, SOSGFA was inaugurated to enrich family ties among families of government functionaries whilst they serve and beyond. SOSGFA is not a sloganeering association and its purpose is already manifesting, as a few weeks after its inauguration, a family picnic took place whereby all SOSGFA members, government functionaries and their teenagers/toddlers were in attendance. Lots of interactive games such as tug of war, father’s race, mother’s race, singing competitions and lots more were played and lots of team work was exhibited to the delight of Mrs. Amosun and other members of SOSGFA. According to her, “We all had an extremely good time, got to know each other in an informal setting all truly in the spirit of enriching family ties, lives and bonds…l feel much fulfilled as the purpose of SOSGFA is being accomplished.”
Author: miji
International Women Day
The International Women’s Day is a day set aside all over the world to appreciate women and focus on their shortcomings in the society by virtue of them being the ‘weaker gender.’ The theme of the 2012 International Women’s Day was “Empower women-End Hunger and Poverty.” In line with this, in Ogun State, the Wife of the Former Governor celebrated the day by inviting women across the State to a programme tagged “UPLIFTing Women” at the MKO Abiola Stadium Kuto, Abeokuta. Women trooped into the stadium in their thousands as early as 8 O’clock in the morning to celebrate the day. Here they were entertained by march past displays from various women groups that were in attendance. Various artists and entertainers were also at hand to make the day a lively one for all. Worthy of mention was the Midnight Crew, Alhaji Sule, Rocky FeIla’s just to mention a few. His Former Excellency, Senator lbikunle Amosun deemed it fit to come and felicitate with the womenfolk in the State and honored the women with an appearance at the stadium and a pledge to continue to be gender sensitive in his executive decisions. The high point of the day was the empowerment exercise, where Mrs. Amosun announced that she had been able to secure items such as Deep Freezers, Bajaj Motorcycles, Generating Sets, Sewing Machines, Bags of Rice, Grinding Machines and other items at distributorship prices to be purchased by members of established cooperatives within the State and spread the repayment for these times over a 12-month interest free period.
Eye Camp for the less Privileged
Former Wife of Ogun State Governor, Mrs.Amosun,in her campaign to make life more comfortable for the less privileged, on 27th of February, 2012, collaborated with TulsiChanrai Foundation and Enpee Group to organize a Free Eye Camp for more than 4,000 people from the 20 local government areas of the state with impaired sights. The occasion was flagged-off at the General Hospital ljebu-Ode. Speaking at the occasion, Mrs. Amosun stated that it had come to her attention that sadly, several Nigerians are suffering from cataract, a cause of blindness, which could easily be cured through medical treatment, but were ending up blind due to ignorance and lack of access to treatment. “We are passionate about the health of the people in all the nooks and crannies of Ogun State, especially the less privileged citizens in the society. Eye sight is something that can be easily taken for granted and that is why we have stepped up our awareness campaign to reduce loss of sight in the state. It is our belief that every citizen in the state deserves good healthcare and we are committed to supporting the state government in its aim to providing quality healthcare and increasing access to free surgeries where required,” she said. The Former First Lady expressed her desire to always support lifesaving initiatives that would boost the health of the people. Free eye glasses, drugs and surgeries were also administered based on the various diagnoses. She described eyes as a very important organ of the body which must be taken care of regularly, assuring that the state government would continue to ensure quality health-care delivery services to the people of the state. Speaking at the General Hospital, ljaiye in Abeokuta, while witnessing free surgeries performed on about 50 people who had lost their sight due to cataract and glaucoma, Mrs. Amosun said: “The surgery is in furtherance of the Free Eye Camp programme organised for the less privileged people, where over 4,000 people were screened across the state’s 20 local governments. In the first phase of this programme, over 500 people were diagnosed with various eye ailments. Out of this group, eye-glasses were given to about 200 people, about 150 received free drugs, and 100 people were slated to undergo cataract surgery, 50 of these have already undergone surgery successfully and the others are on standby for their turn.
The Aged
The programme gives a sense of belonging to the older people in the State. The Former First Lady flagged off this initiative to commemorate the birthday of the Former Governor who had insisted that there would be no felicitations of any kind on his birthday. Knowing how dear the elderly are to her husband, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun invited 1000 citizens, 50 from each of the 20 Local Government Areas in the State to join the Governor in spending his day. Over 1000 Senior citizens turned up at the June 12 Cultural Center on the 25th of January 2012. Just as expected, the Former Governor was overjoyed to see them. Health tips were given to the aged people, while free medical screening was also administered to them. They wined and dinned, and went home with bags of essential commodities and a small cash gift. Realizing that this was just one day in the life of these senior citizens, on the 2nd of may, 2012, which coincided with the birthday of the former wife of the governor, 100 of these needy aged citizens were identified and have now been put on a monthly plan to receive essential commodities and a stipend of 5,000 naira on a monthly basis, delivered to them to assist them in their daily lives.
SS3 Students in Ogun State.
The education standard in schools in Ogun State and Nigeria as a whole has dropped immensely, due to various reasons like lack of good teaching aids and facilities, poor training programs and resource materials for the teachers and general lack of motivation for teachers to teach selflessly and/or students to learn anxiously. In a bid to wake up the motivation in the students and complement the free education scheme and free text books which were distributed to all students by her husband’s administration,former wife of the Governor of Ogun State, Mrs. Amosun felt that a reward system of some sort could assist in motivating students to strive and aspire to do better. As a Guidance Counselor by profession, Mrs. Amosun decided to seek sponsorship to support her motivating programme for SS3 students. In January 2012, sponsorship was secured for the 20 students (one from each Local Government Area in the state) to accompany the former wife of the Governor of Ogun State on an all-expense paid leadership, enlightening and educative trip outside the country. The initiative is an ongoing one that’s Results in Ogun State’ will be designed to motivate students to do scheduled to ensure that they do not their very best in the Senior interfere with the plans by some of them to secure admission into higher institutions in the next academic session. For the whole duration of the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination early in 2012, there were jingles on the radio and television to inform all students of this reward as a form of steering them towards striving to excel. The following advert was also published a few times especially in local newspapers. It’s a way of encouraging students in all the state-owned schools to take full advantage of the free qualitative education scheme that the Former Governor, Senator lbikunle Amosun (FCA) has introduced into the state. The exam results are currently being awaited, and the Ministry of Education is on standby for the winners to emerge. The overall best student of the 20 would be further rewarded with a cash gift towards aiding him or her in the payment of the already subsidized tuition in tertiary institutions in the State.