THE ArOY Health Campaign: Multiple States’ First Ladies in Nigeria engage with the OCI Foundation, as consultations for nationwide roll-out gather momentum (Since November 2020)

The OCI Foundation’s Arm Our Youths (ArOY) Health  Campaign is a novel, technology-driven, Harvard-endorsed, WHO-supported, and evidence-based health promotion initiative that aims to introduce the anti-breast and anti-cervical cancer teachings into the curriculum of all senior secondary schools in Nigeria as a way of tackling breast and cervical cancers.

To make this happen, the Foundation is working with various state governors and first ladies across Nigeria, and some with high-level discussions are already going on. Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the Nigerian Cancer Society (NCS) are also among a number of official partners to the Campaign, which was successfully rolled out across all the 261 senior secondary schools in Anambra State of Nigeria in September 2019. A similar event scheduled for Benue State  (May 2020) was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  All of Nigeria’s 36 states (and the FCT) are expected to benefit before the end of 2025, and the ongoing consultations are part of this whole process.

The images below capture our engagements with a number of first ladies from various states of Nigeria, including Niger, Benue, Kebbi, Ondo, Kwara and Ekiti states. Intense efforts are on, to reach all the other first ladies.

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.

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 ministries of Health, Education and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).