It is unprecedented times, so more children are out of school. Consequently, IA-Foundation held its second fundraising event virtually on the 27th of February 2021. Over 200 people from all over the world logged in on the day, to socialise, network and raise funds to help reduce the number of ‘out-of-school’ children in Nigeria.
The theme of the event was #breaking barriers. The Foundation is indeed on a mission to breaking barriers such as poverty, security and other societal challenges that could prevent a Nigerian child from having access to formal education.
The CEO/Founder, Mrs Ibironke Adeagbo, a chartered accountant and education advocate, delivered her welcome address and explained her passion for education and how she believes education is the silver bullet to solving Nigeria’s challenges.
She drew participants attention to the spike in the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria. She said this was a ticking time bomb and everyone needs to be concerned about this challenge. She emphasised the importance of ensuring every Nigeria child has access to education, to reduce poverty, improve social mobility, improve human capital indices, and ensure Nigeria can take its rightful place in the committee of nations. She encouraged participants to support IA-Foundation’s mission by donating generously to this worthy cause.
This year’s virtual event was organised by a 10-man organising committee made up of high-profile members of the community both in UK and in Nigeria. The organising committee is chaired by Mr Tolu Deru, a versatile gentleman with brilliant organisational skills. This year had high profile guest speakers based in Nigeria and in the UK. Oba (Dr) Adedokun Abolarin, the Orangun of Oke-Ila and proprietor of Abolarin College in Oke-Ila Orangun in Osun state was one of the guest speakers and he encouraged all to answer the clarion call and support IA-Foundation’s mission. The king is a renowned teacher and lawyer, that is now using his royal stool to fight poverty with education. More importantly, he is helping the future generation by providing free and qualitative education for the future generation. The second speaker was Pastor Mrs Sola Irukwu, co-founder of Bright Futures for Africa and co-pastor of largest RCCG in London – Jesus House, she spoke passionately about their work in Africa, trying to ensure children can access good education.
The icing on the cake was the very inspiring and engaging session by the Honourable Commissioner of Lagos state, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo. She highlighted some of the activities of the Lagos state government to ensure every child in Lagos has access to good education.
The fund-raising session conducted by Mr Tunde Falode, was hilarious, engaging and stimulating and the Foundation raised over £15,000 on the night and participants are still donating to date.
In the chat box, some participants made some good suggestions on how to reduce the number of out-of- school children and improve the standard of education in Nigeria. The DJ thrilled the guests with lots of good music, raffle prizes won, networking etc.
The Founder, Mrs Adeagbo and the board would like to thank all participants and donors both in cash and pro bono for their generous donations and she promised that their donations would be put to go use and a report would be presented to all at the 2022 Charity event. IA-Foundation’s fundraising event is definitely ‘a-must-attend’ event every year.
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