There’s great joy in putting smiles on people’s face

Barrister Adaora Offor, the Vice President of the Foundation shares with us her special role in the Foundation which revolves much in ensuring better life for the women folks, especially the indigent widows. Excerpts:


Can you give us a brief profile of Barrister Adaora Offor, Vice President, Sir Emeka Offor Foundation (SEOF)?
Barrister Adaora Offor was born a little less than 40 years ago in Onitsha to Chief and Mrs Okey Ufondu. My parents are entrepreneurs. I am their first child and have 8 siblings – 6 sisters and 2 brothers. I would say that I had a sheltered life – I had my primary education at Creative Minds Foundation, and my Secondary school education at Federal Government College, both in Onitsha. Afterward, I studied Law at University of Nigeria – Enugu campus and proceeded to Nigerian Law School, Abuja. I would call myself a multi-faceted person – I am a Lawyer, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist with a background in Interior Architecture/Design from the KLC school of Design, London. I am also a Christian, a wife and most importantly, a mum.

As the Vice President of SEOF, which aspect of the Foundation is under your office?
I partly oversee every aspect of the Foundation. More directly under my wing is the Widows Empowerment Scheme that carters for over 2000 widows in my home town, Oraifite. My husband started this program many years ago as one of the premier projects of the Foundation and I completely took it up when we got married. Before the scheme began, being a widow in the town I come from is viewed as a death sentence. People willingly or unwillingly devised ways to dehumanize widows.

Indeed, widows are most vulnerable. The loss of a spouse comes with emotional trauma and physical challenges in our impoverished society. This motivated my husband to create the Scheme to empower widows, give them a sense of humanity and restore their dignity. The scheme has given hope, restored, otherwise lost privileges and made widows smile again. The Foundation funds their businesses; organises skill acquisition programs for them; provide employment to the educated ones that are able to work in establishments; and enables some of them attend International skill acquisition Trips (like the last edition that held in India). The Foundation equally assists them to run a Cooperative, and empowers them with other means of livelihood. Through the Legal Aid Team, the Foundation is able to carter for the legal needs of the widows, free of charge. This is important because we noticed that many widows are arrested and dragged to court over their late husbands’ property by relatives who feel that these widows have no one to look out for them. There was a case where a widow was made to stay in a room with a corpse of her neighbour simply because she quarrelled with him a week before his death. In the same way, we recently flagged-off the Touch-A-Life Housing Project for the widows to provide houses for those in the lowest parts of the ladder.

Part of the cardinal programme of SEOF is the Widows Cooperative Scheme. What is the scheme all about?
The seed money of the Cooperative was fully funded by the Foundation. In this programme, the Widows are organised into groups, with each group coordinating a lucrative activity like palm oil production, garri production, trade, water sales and other handy skills to generate money as well as provide employment within themselves. With these investments in place, the Cooperative was set up for them. It has now grown to be very strong financial outfit, so that in addition to lending money to each other, they now lend money to others and make minimal profit.

Kindly give us an insight into the housing programme for widows in Oraifite, Anambra State by SEOF?
As I earlier mentioned, we have a new housing scheme for widows, called the Touch-A-Life Housing Scheme which we launched last year. This programme was birthed about 4 years ago when in conjunction with the Wife of the Immediate Past Governor of Imo State – Her Excellency, Dr. Mrs. Nneoma Nkechi Okorocha, we were able to construct 5 buildings for indigent widows, which was her PET Project as First Lady. This opened our eyes to another area of intervention for widows. We came to understand that while we empower widows, a good number of them do not have a place of abode. Some others have their homes taken away from them after the death of their husbands or were forced to move back to their fathers’ houses. Through this project, we anticipate to provide 10 to 30 homes for widows, every year. We have flagged-off construction of the houses this year, and this will set the tone for the coming years. There are also indications that the project will receive tremendous support from like minds.

What are the criteria for the selection of beneficiaries of the housing programme?
The first and most important criteria is that the applicant must be a widow in Oraifite Town. She must also be a member of the Sir Emeka Offor Widows’ Cooperative Society. Going forward, the applicant must be indigent and unable to afford a home. She must also be resident in any of the villages in Oraifite town except on compassionate reasons. We also expect that prospective beneficiaries own a piece of land which is available without encumbrance. They are required to apply to the Foundation to indicate their need for a house. Thereafter, the selections are done to ensure that each village and cooperative group benefit in the building phase. With these criteria in place, independent accessors among the cooperative score each applicant without bias. The final average mark on each candidate is used to shortlist widows for a mop-up interview, where more is enquired about their backgrounds.

Do you have any plans in the future to extend the housing programme to other parts of Anambra state and possibly to other states of the federation?
Yes. Our goal is to reach as many widows as possible. You see, sadly, the way life works is that people will lose their husbands. And so, reaching out to many people will give us joy to know that even the widows in the farthest parts of Nigeria would have a roof over their heads. Our target is to reach as many as possible, irrespective of where they come from and who they are.

How have you been combining effectively the home front as a wife and mother with your responsibility as the Vice President of SEOF, which undoubtedly is a tasking job?
I try as much as possible to do it in the best way I can. In SEOF, I have an incredible team and they make it very easy for me. At the home front, my husband and I understand the work put out for us. I do my best so that my children are not losing out but rather gaining all the roles I have to play in their lives. For me, being a mum and a wife comes first among all my roles. It is not something that I take casually, it is one that I dedicate my time to. Similarly, being a philanthropist is not an easy feat, but I am glad that I have an amazing team helping me. Finally, I try to relax as well when I can and get some rest, because that way, I am able to give in my best to every role that I find myself. In conclusion, I believe that the work we do in the Foundation is God’s work and is a rare privilege. For me, there is a purpose why we are here on earth and it really does not matter how long it takes you to find it, but when you do, give it your very best, because despite the billions of people on earth, God put you there; it could have been anybody. Do it in utmost humility and in appreciation that God has put you there.