04 Dec 2020 ArOY Health Campaign: Emzor Pharmaceuticals Nigeria Limited Hosts the OCI Foundation, as plans gear up for a national Nigerian roll-out. (03/12/2020)
On Thursday, December 3rd, 2020, Emzor Pharmaceuticals Nigeria Limited, a leading indigenous pharmaceutical company in Nigeria, played host to an OCI Foundation delegation. The meeting, held in Lagos, Nigeria, is part of the consultations and stakeholder-engagements by the OCI Foundation, as plans begin to pick up for a successful roll-out of the Arm Our Youths (ArOY) Health Campaign, which is now expected to re-commence in the second half of 2021.
The high-powered OCI Foundation Team was led by it its National Champion, Rev Dr Austin Epunam and the President/Founder of the Sweet Home Africa Humanitarian Foundation, SHAHF). Barr (Dr) Kingsley UKABI, a Co-ordinator of the SHAHF, and a leading Advocacy member of the OCI Foundation in Lagos, was also in attendance. The other members of the OCI Foundation at the meeting were its Lagos State Champion, Mrs Roseline Anijekwu, its Fashion Consultant, Mrs Chiugo OKOLI-EZEIKE, and a Member of its Lagos Advocacy Team, Mr Matthias CHIKWENDU.
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 45th 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), the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Orientation Agency, 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.
There are also plans to involve the Office of the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Nigeria’s Governor’s Forum (which includes the Governors of all the 36 States of Nigeria), and Nigeria’s Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
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