OCI Foundation and Nigeria’s NOA embark on joint enlightenment campaigns to 3 different secondary schools in Abuja, Nigeria (November 2020)

Over 3 different days in November 2020 (18^th, 19^th and the 25^th), the OCI Foundation has featured alongside Nigeria’s National Orientation Agency at enlightenment campaigns to public secondary schools in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. The OCI Foundation and the NOA are official partners on the Arm our Youths (ArOY) Health Campaign, a novel health initiative of the OCI Foundation that aims to introduce anti-breast and anti-cervical teachings into the curriculum of all Nigerian senior secondary schools.

The NOA is the main body charged by the Nigerian Federal Government with the task of ensuring that government programmes and policies are well understood by the general public, and they consistently work to raise awareness on relevant issues in this regard.

At these school visits, the NOA educated the participating students on ways of tackling rape, while the OCI Foundation enlightened them on anti-breast and cervical cancer measures. The three benefiting schools are:

1. Government Junior Secondary School, Wuse Zone 3, Abuja, Nigeria (18/11/20)
2. Maitama Model Secondary School , Abuja, Nigeria (19/11/20)
3. Federal Govt Boys Secondary School, Apo Abuja, Nigeria (25/11/20)

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 National Orientation Agency (NOA), the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS), Silk Road Restaurant (Abuja), and the Post Primary Schools Service Commission, PPSSC (Anambra state), among others.