Chris Ifediora – Depicting the Real Meaning of Philanthropism
No exercise is better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people. Helping people eliminate stress and anxiety lifts the mood and gives you a positive vibe. Helping can increase our career options and open up new networking opportunities. Many NGOs operate in societies to bring development, peace, and prosperity. One of the most prominent NGOs is the OCI (Onyebuchi Chris Ifediora) Foundation, working in Nigeria on distinctive factors.
The non-profit organization OCI Foundation is aligned with different organizations to put their philanthropy agenda into perspective. Founded by humanitarian and Associate Professor Chris Onyebuchi Ifediora on April 29, 2016, the OCI Foundation is Africa’s most visionary and practical organization. OCI Foundation has beneficiaries and trustees worldwide vouching for its authenticity. The foundation also got officially registered in Australia on June 4, 2018.
The three motives of the OCI Foundation are focused on health, education, and social/public welfare. First and foremost, the Foundation’s primary agenda is to work in health because Nigeria is one of the worst countries when it comes to health. Women’s health especially is at risk. Two types of cancer, i.e., breast and cervical cancers, can be fatal and, combined, cause thousands of deaths among Nigerian women, annually. They are among the top 2 primary cancer reasons for women’s deaths in Nigeria.
Chris Ifediora took this matter into his hands. Within merely 2 years of the inception of OCI Foundation, he developed a health campaign called Arm Our Youths Health initiative, famously known as ArOY Campaign. The campaign was designed to teach and guide Nigerian school students since 72% of youth are educated, so it was anticipated that the impact would be huge. The first round of the campaign started in September 2019, with a 3-day ceremony in Anambra State, where 261 schools participated, and are still benefitting on an ongoing basis after teachers from all 261 high schools were invited for training. The breast and cervical cancer prevention campaigns focused on the two cancers’ early symptoms, risk factors, and preventive practices.
The successful campaign led to the expansion of the program to include other Nigerian youths, a program first announced in October 2021, and now being delivered by Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Speeches, talks, Q&A sessions, and selected demonstrations were part of the NYSC program.
The prevalence of breast and cervical cancer in Nigerian Women further compelled Ifediora to take further steps. He has pushed to make breast and cervical cancer learnings part of secondary and high school syllabi to educate youth across all of Nigeria, and a legislative Bill to make this possible is currently making its final rounds. The ArOY Campaign also has a research component, which involves a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial methodology designed to gauge the program. It will ensure that developments are implemented accordingly, while expansions to the rest of the developing world, starting from the whole of Africa, will occur from the lessons and adjustments arising from those studies.
The future plan of OCI Foundation is quite innovative and visionary. The Foundation plans to organize seminars and workshops about breast and cervical cancer prevention in all 36 states. Moreover, Ifediora is trying to incorporate cancer learnings into school studies across the whole of Africa and the developing world, as already stated.
Other aspects of the ArOY breast and cervical cancer prevention campaign blend technology with the campaign. The OCI Foundation developed a free mobile application called the Cervi-Breast. The application is free and available for download on both the Google and Android Play stores. The Cervi-Breast mobile application has various features, such as self-information for breast and cervical cancer, audio/video for cancer prevention instruction, and helpful user reminders. Ifediora plans to elaborate the application to include the database and link the user to cancer experts. To make this happen, OCI Foundation is collaborating with Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health and the WHO’s Country Office in Nigeria.
The convoluted philanthropic activities of the OCI Foundation also delve into the educational sector. Ifediora, through his foundation, introduced 5 sets of scholarships and 1 Literary Award. The 5 scholarship programs are for secondary and tertiary school students, while the one literary award is for medical undergraduates. The scholarship programs include the Cyfed Undergraduate Scholarships (CUS) for undergraduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions, the Annual JAMB Awards for post-secondary school students wishing to take the entrance examinations into Nigerian tertiary institutions, the IFOMSSA Senior Awards for final year students of senior secondary schools, the IFOMSSA Junior Awards for final year students in junior secondary schools, and the Cyfed-Bradley Hope (CBH) Undergraduate Scholarship for undergraduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions from the entire Anambra State of Nigeria. The annual Literary Award for Medical Students (LAMS) boosts the growth of literacy skills among medical undergraduates.
These annual scholarships are offered to indigent scholars, and the deserving students are selected through an unbiased merits process.
For the above reasons and more, the OCI Foundation is the recipient of multiple international awards and recognitions. Nigerian law students conferred the Award Of Excellence to Chris Ifediora on November 11, 2022, while the OCI Foundation was honored with The Most Impactful NGO of the Year by the prestigious Hall of Fame Award in November 2022. The Foundation won the Emerging NFP of the Year in Australia in the same year.
The success of the OCI Foundation is just the tip of the iceberg of its capabilities and efforts. Chris Ifediora plans to collaborate with the world’s most prominent medical professionals and philanthropists to improve societies. He started this journey alone, and now prestigious organizations like WHO are associated with him. These result from Chris and his team’s sheer selfless effort and hard work, while expecting nothing in return. It all aligns with the motto they created back in 2016, which is, “We Rise, By Lifting Others”.