ArOY Health Campaign: DG of Nigeria's NOA, Dr Garba Abari, hosts the OCI Foundation, soon after the two bodies sealed partnership with an MOU (March 9, 2021)

11 Mar 2021 ArOY Health Campaign: DG of Nigeria’s NOA, Dr Garba Abari, hosts the OCI Foundation, soon after the two bodies sealed partnership with an MOU (March 9, 2021)

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Shortly after the historic signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the OCI Foundation and Nigeria’s National Orientation Agency (NOA) on March 9th, 2021, the Director General (DG) of the NOA, Dr Garba Abari, hosted a delegation of the OCI Foundation at the Agency’s headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria. The OCI Foundation was led at the meeting by its National Champion, Rev Dr Austin Epunam.

The partnership between the NOA and the OCI Foundation is geared towards the nationwide roll-out of the Foundation’s Arm Our Youths Health Campaign, which is a Harvard and WHO-endorsed health initiative that seeks to introduce anti-breast and anti-cervical cancer teachings into the curriculum of all senior secondary schools in Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT before the end of 2025. Anambra State is already benefiting from the Campaign, and about 4 states are expected to roll it out in 2021.

It should be noted that 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), Nigeria’s National Orientation Agency (NOA), the Federal Ministry of Health (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.