2025 OCI Foundation’s Goodwill Message: Video and Full Text from the President (01/01/2025)

TEXT OF THE GOODWILL MESSAGE FROM THE OCI FOUNDATION (JAN 2025)

1. I am Dr Chris Onyebuchi Ifediora, the president and founder of the OCI Foundation International.
2. I am thrilled to welcome us all to this brand New Year, 2025.
3. On behalf of the OCI Foundation International and my family, I thank God for leading us all through 2024 and pray for a stress-free, happy and productive 2025 for all members, volunteers, associates, partners and beneficiaries of the OCI Foundation.
4. This Goodwill Message from the Foundation represents an annual tradition that allows us to take stock and provide updates on what we did in the 12 months before now, and what we intend to achieve in the 12 months after now.
5. For those fairly new to our organisation, the OCI Foundation International is a conglomeration of independent charity bodies that are formally registered, exist and function in Nigeria (since 2016), Australia (since 2018), and the United Kingdom (since 2023).
6. Across all three countries and continents, the Foundation’s activities are centred on three key tripods that include the Advancement and Promotion of Health, the Promotion of Education, and the Promotion of Public and Social Welfare.
7. 2024 was a great year for us. For the first time ever, we participated at the 2024 World Cancer Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, and did the much we could see to the emergence of Nigeria’s Dr Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu as the President-elect of the body.
8. We also hosted our very first events in Liverpool and London, both in the United Kingdom, and featured at events in Accra (Ghana), Sydney (Australia) and Abuja (Nigeria).
9. Now, we look at a recap on the year, summarised along the lines of our activity tripod, which as earlier stated, borders on Health, Education, and Public or Social Welfare.

ON HEALTH

1. We have continued to consolidate on the Arm Our Youths Anti-cancer Health Campaign, otherwise known as the ArOY Health Campaign.

2. Widely known as the ArOY Health Campaign, this research-inspired, evidence-based, technology-driven flagship health initiative of the OCI Foundation offers a global-first approach to fight against breast and cervical cancers in developing countries.

3. In our humble view, ladies and gentlemen, the ArOY Anti-cancer Health Campaign is, arguably, one of the most impactful healthcare initiatives in Nigeria’s recent history, particularly one initiated by a private Non-Governmental Organisation.

4. It was developed during my time at the United States’ Harvard Medical School and, among other national and international institutions, has earned the support of the WHO’s Country Office in Nigeria.

5. The campaign primarily targets two groups of youths. The first are those serving Nigeria through the National Youths Service Scheme (the NYSC), while the second are those in Senior Secondary Schools across Nigeria.

6. In 2024, the ArOY Health Campaign with the NYSC was staged FIVE different times across most of the 37 orientation camps of the NYSC. What was supposed to be the sixth campaign for the year, as has been the case annually since it started in 2022, will now hold in early 2025. So, we expect seven editions this year.

7. As we all know, the NYSC is, arguably, Africa’s largest youth organisation. Its partnership with the OCI Foundation over the past 17 editions has seen us reach over half a million Nigerian youths with the ArOY Health Campaign’s anti-cancer message on an annual basis.

8. The ArOY Campaign with senior secondary schools continue to enjoy significant success. While an OCI Foundation-sponsored legislative bill that will see the program become a compulsory part of the curriculum of all senior secondary schools in Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT, is still awaiting presidential assent, millions of youths in public schools across Anambra, the first State to embrace the program in its schools, have benefitted from the program since it we partnered with that State’s Government to introduce it in 2019.

9. The program in Anambra is accompanied by an annual statewide quiz competition known as the Anambra ArOY Health Campaign Schools Challenge (AHCSC). This competition was started in 2021 and is now in its Fourth Edition.

10. As has become part of the OCI Foundation’s tradition to mark the annual Global World Cancer Day, the Grand Final for the quiz’s Fifth Edition will be held around February 4, 2024.

11. The ArOY Health Campaign, which is technology-driven, has two additional components.

12. One is the CerviBreast Mobile Phone Application, an interactive anti-cancer App that is free on both Google and Android Play stores for anyone, anywhere in the world. Kindly pause this video and download this App now. Just search the name C-E-R-V-I-B-R-E-A-S-T, on your App Store to download it.

13. The second technological component of the ArOY Health Campaign is the Gynocular Project, an initiative that facilitates free and/or highly subsidised digital cervical cancer screening for Nigerians. Delivered in partnership with the Primary Health Care Board of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, the OCI Foundation established a Gynocular Cancer Centre that was commissioned on February 2nd, 2022, by the then Hon Minister of State for the FCT, Dr Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu.

ON EDUCATION

1. In 2024, the OCI Foundation’s sets of scholarships increased from the usual SIX to SEVEN, with a 7th tier added to cover Nigerian undergraduates who were not indigenes of Anambra.

2. This expansion became necessary as many applications were received from applicants in genuine financial need but would not have been eligible due to the prior limitations.

3. With this development, ladies and gentlemen, the OCI Foundation’s Educational program, just as has been the case with the health project since 2022, is now a Nigerian national program. Applicants from any part of country, be they from the South, the North, the East or the West, will be reviewed under this 7^th scholarship category. Winners in 2024 were the first to benefit from this, and 2025 will build on this. As our antecedents confirm, the OCI Foundation treats all Nigerians the same, irrespective of gender, social, cultural tribal, religious or geo-political affiliations.

4. The Foundation’s scholarship project is unique, as five of the seven currently on offer are interlinked, allowing a potential recipient to stay on its various levels all the way from junior to senior secondary school, and then through to the completion of their tertiary studies.

5. The first two scholarships were named after my beloved father, the late Obi Ifedioramma Isaac Okafor, who was an academic champion in his lifetime. They are the “Ifedioramma Okafor Memorial Secondary School Academic Junior and Senior Awards”, otherwise known as the IFOMMSA Junior and Senior scholarships. They benefit those in junior and senior secondary schools, respectively.

6. The JAMB Award is the third Scholarship and facilitates enrolments into the University Matriculation Examination (UME), which allows entry into Nigerian tertiary institutions.

7. The fourth and fifth incentives are the two scholarships targeting undergraduates already in Nigerian tertiary institutions. They are the Cyfed Undergraduate Scholarship and the Cyfed-Bradley Hope Scholarship. The latter was introduced to honour the memory of a late Australian teenager, Bradley Hope, whose Australian-based family, the Hope Family, partners with the OCI Foundation to deliver this scholarship to Nigerians on a yearly basis.

8. The sixth scholarship is the Literary Award for Medical Students, otherwise known as the LAMS. LAMS, which has National and South-east regional categories, is a scheme designed to incentivise students in all recognised medical schools across Nigeria to develop better literary and research skills.

9. In addition to the seventh scholarship described earlier, the OCI Foundation in Australia and the United Kingdom, are currently working on the 8^th and 9^th scholarship schemes. We hope that these will come into effect sometime in 2025 for medical students in these countries. They will be known as LARAMS, an acronym for the Literary and Research Award for Medical Students. They will be modelled after the Nigerian LAMS, which is now in its 5^th

10. Ladies and gentlemen, we are pleased to report that the impact of our scholarship schemes is huge. Multiple recipients graduated in 2024, with one coming out with a First Class in Chemical Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. Overall, thousands have benefitted from the secondary school and JAMB schemes, with scores gaining admissions into Nigerian tertiary institutions. Close to 20 of these young Nigerians have become graduates of Universities and Polytechnics, with about two scores currently on active support from the Foundation at the moment.

11. Among the current graduates are medical doctors, engineers, accountants, biochemists, laboratory scientists and educators. Some of these young male and female beneficiaries might have struggled to gain admission to any tertiary institution, let alone graduate from them, without the little support provided by the OCI Foundation. These support come in the forms of tuition fees, free accommodation, other financial incentives, and mentorship, among others.

ON PUBLIC AND SOCIAL WELFARE

1. This remains the third and final footing of the OCI Foundation’s activity tripod.
2. Through this, we actively seek to implement the second legislative bill initiated by the OCI Foundation through the Nigerian National Assembly to ensure that teaching on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) mitigating measures are introduced into the curriculum of all Junior and Senior Secondary Schools in Nigeria. As with the ArOY Campaign Bill, this SGBV bill is still awaiting presidential assent before it becomes a law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

3. In 2024, the OCI Foundation got successfully registered with the Yobe State Government in North East Nigeria. In January of the same year, a Girl Child Ambassador, Surayya Kabir, was appointed for that region. We also provided financial support for the Yobe State Spelling Bee Competition. Our presence in Yobe will be permanent. We are currently working out annual programs, thanks to the OCI Foundation’s Champion for that State, Mr Mohammed Rancass.

4. Also in 2024, we supported social and public welfare activities in Nsugbe, the home town of the Foundation’s President. The Ichu Odaa cultural competition that involves young girls was supported by Foundation, as was a housing project by married women in the community.

5. In the past, the Social and Public Welfare programs of the OCI Foundation has also allowed us to sponsor multiple social activities across NYSC orientation camps in Nigeria. Some of these include Pageantries and Quiz competitions, as well as Cultural, Singing and Eating Competitions.

6. For the 5^th year in a row, the OCI Foundation has also supported a soccer outfit in Nsugbe, the hometown of the Foundation’s President.

7. In 2024, we also provided social support during festive seasons for age grades and women in the same Nsugbe. These add to our Direct Empowerment Project, which had hitherto allowed us to train beneficiaries on various skills acquisition programs.

8. Finally, this Public and Social Welfare component of the OCI Foundation allows us to stand with our bereaved associates at their most trying moments while celebrating with those who had cherished times at weddings, anniversaries, and other events.

IN CLOSING, ladies and gentlemen, we wish to thank all our members, volunteers, partners and associates across the world. No achievement would ever have been possible without your understanding, patience, resourcefulness, tenacity and belief to our projects and the ideologies underlying them.

We also thank all those who have recognised and honoured us in different ways. We appreciate all the awards and remain ready to receive more from reputable institutions across the world.

Thank you all for listening. Kindly share this speech through your social media networks.

We wish everyone God’s continued blessings and protections. We invite you all to continue supporting and partnering with us, as WE RISE, BY LIFTING OTHERS.

God bless us all, and thank you.