ArOY Campaign: More stakeholder engagements, as The OCI Foundation’s National Champion tours Nigeria (August 31st, 2020)

ArOY Campaign: More stakeholder engagements, as The OCI Foundation’s National Champion tours Nigeria (August 31^st, 2020)

On Monday, the 31^st day of August, 2020, The OCI Foundation’s commitment to a national roll-out of the Arm our Youths (ArOY) Health Campaign across the whole of Nigeria was on full display, as the Foundation’s National Champion, Rev Dr Austin Epunam, engaged stakeholders in the industrial City of Nnewi, South-eastern Nigeria.

Among the stakeholders in attendance were Mr Ikenna Michael Ifejiofor, the CEO of “Ike God Foods Industries Limited”, who are the makers of the Jolly Jolly instant noodles, as well as Chief Ugochukwu UDEMEZUE (the Ifeneti Nnewi), who is the President-General of Nnewi town, Nigeria. Chief Ugochukwu is keen to use his position and influence to extend the nationwide reach and impact of the ArOY Campaign.

Other distinguished stakeholders in attendance at the meeting were Mr Leke Ajayi and Mr Olubunmi Temiola, the respective CEO and Head of Digital Media of “One Nation Unity“, a soon-to-be-unveiled NGO that is working with Nigeria’s National Orientation Agency (NOA) to re-ignite the spirit of unity, national pride and patriotism amongst Nigerians. An OCI Foundation partnership with the One Nation Unity project will create further avenues for Nigerians to access the life-saving visions encapsulated in the ArOY Campaign, while projecting the group’s uniting and patriotic messages to fresh Nigerian university graduates (as youth corpers) and senior secondary school students. These are the demographics mainly targeted by the OCI Foundation’s ArOY Campaign.

Similarly, it is hoped that an OCI Foundation’s partnership with “Ike God Foods” will help amplify the Foundation’s ArOY Campaign life-saving message, while bringing the Jolly Jolly noodles to the consciousness of Nigerians. The noodles are Nigerian-made, affordable and of high quality, and their production was commenced less than a  year ago as a way of minimizing hunger in the nation, particularly for students in secondary schools and universities (the prime targets of the OCI Foundation’s health campaign), as well as families.

For the records, the ArOY Campaign is a novel, Harvard-endorsed, WHO-supported, and evidence-based health promotion initiative of the OCI Foundation, which is being introduced across all senior secondary schools in Nigeria as a way of tackling breast and cervical cancers. In September 2019, it was rolled out across all the 261 senior secondary schools in Anambra State of Nigeria, and a similar event, scheduled for Benue State in May 2020, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  All of Nigeria’s 36 states (and the FCT) are expected to benefit from the ArOY campaign on or before the end of 2025, and the ongoing consultations are part of this whole process.

The ArOY Health Campaign has the support of the, NextGenU.org (the World’s first online University), the United States Centers for Disease Control (U.S. CDC) and the University of British Columbia, Canada (ranked 45^th in the world, according to the 2021 QS World University Ranking). Experts from these institutions, along with others from the University of Saskatchewan (Canada) and the Griffith University (Australia), will work with the OCI Foundation and the Nigerian Government on the roll-out, implementation and monitoring of the ArOY project. In addition, the prestigious Harvard Medical School, USA, of which Dr Chris Ifediora (the Founder of the OCI Foundation) is an Alumnus of, had earlier endorsed the Campaign, and made significant contributions to the Campaign’s design ahead of its roll out in Anambra State last year.

A number of other reputable Nigerian institutions partnering the OCI Foundation on this initiative include the Innoson Group, the NYSC (National Office), the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs (Nigeria), Nollywood Nigeria, the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS), Silk Road Restaurant (Abuja), and the Post Primary Schools Service Commission, PPSSC (Anambra state), among others.