NYSC HIRD INITIATIVE: Video and Pics from the 3rd OCI Foundation Outing At the Event in Abuja, Nigeria; 19/05/2025

The OCI Foundation has, as usual, honoured another invitation from the Director General (DG) of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) to the “Special Health Initiative For Rural Dwellers (HIRD)”, a program regularly organised by the Directorate’s Headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria.

The event featured speeches by key partners of the NYSC, of which the OCI Foundation is among.

This is the third time that the OCI Foundation has been featured in the NYSC’s HIRD program. All the HIRD outings involving the OCI Foundation and the NYSC since early 2024 are captured HERE.

In July 2024, the OCI Foundation was honoured with an award as the third Best Collaborative Partner of the NYSC. Details of that are contained HERE.

The OCI Foundation’s delegation to the latest HIRD Event was led by Mr Luter Ikyobo, who spoke on behalf of the Foundation. He was accompanied by Ms Felicia Dagu, the Foundation’s Admin Officer.

It should be noted that, through the NYSC-OCI Foundation partnership that was launched in February 2022 by the then Nigerian First Lady, Her Excellency, Dr. (Mrs) Aisha Buhari, the OCI Foundation reaches over half a million Nigerian youths annually with its novel “Arm Our Youths (ArOY) Anti-cancer Health Campaign. The ArOY Health Campaign is currently in its 15^th Edition (as at the time of this publication) and is held six times a year. It targets all 37 NYSC orientation camps across Nigeria with its life-saving messages against breast and cervical cancers. Details of all 15 editions to date are HERE.

The Foundation also sponsors raffle draws and social media contests for each Stream and Batch of the NYSC corps members as part of its efforts to empower Nigerian youths as they promote and propagate anti-cancer messages to Nigerians.

In the past, the OCI Foundation also promoted social and public welfare programs among the corps members by sponsoring activities like pageantries and quizzes, as well as cultural, singing, and eating Competitions.

The OCI Foundation aims to expand these activities and introduce health screening centres across NYSC camps in Nigeria, and is currently awaiting further approvals from the NYSC in order to effect these.