By Wale Bakare

Africa, in its peculiar nature faces a daunting task in creating an enabling environment to the contemporary global problems posed by poverty and the deprivation of the rights of mother and child lives under certain circumstances. The preconditions needed to make the Africa women succeed as mothers and useful members of the society to enable them compete favourably with their male counterparts are not readily attractive, and these women face some forms of prejudice either at the home front or within the society thus necessitating the advocacy for empowerment and rights of African women and young children.

Perturbed by the existing status quo and the level of injustice meted out against Women, The WellBeing Foundation Africa (WBFA), a non-governmental organization was birthed in the year 2003 by Mrs Toyin Saraki to serve as a voice and a platform for the African Women and Child to rediscover the basis for their existence and tackle common vices associated with the feminine gender. Recall, during her tenure as the first Lady of Kwara State, she took it upon herself to look after the pregnant women and ensured their safe delivery through her pet project - Alaafia Kwara, unlike the many first ladies pet projects that goes into oblivion at the expiration of their husband's tenure as the Chief Executive of the State. Mrs Saraki has distinguished herself as a selfless workaholic by galvanizing the Alaafia Kwara Project (dedicated to the Kwara Wellbeing Trust) with the WellBeing foundation Africa as the parent body to ensure that Kwarans and non-Kwarans benefit immensely from the various health schemes initiated worldwide.

WBFA, registered as a pan-African organisation since inception has continued to bridge the gap to create real and sustainable change for African families through collaborative efforts by working with communities across the continent to build capacities and empower women. These and many more of such sustainable programmes has given people across Africa the ability to seek better lives for themselves and for their communities, which in my opinion is key to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs 2000-2015).

Africa, no doubt, remains the poorest continent in the world, her challenges are numerous; hunger and poverty in extreme cases are easily felt in the land; International aid to most of these affected countries are on the decline and help is needed urgently to cater to these women and malnourished children who are disadvantaged by virtue of the societal norms, religious tradition and cultural myths. Also, the rising vulnerability to diseases often transferred from mother to child due to lack of a proper health regime system, most especially the rural dwellers accustomed to such backwardness posing a bigger threat to the unborn child. The women need equal access to resources and services as their male counterparts. This exactly, is what the WBFA is all about; making women visible, eradicating poverty by changing their social and economic dynamics to take charge of their lives. Sensitizing the men to stop the abuse on feminism and domestic violence. Encourage child education, delay child pregnancy and early marriages of young adolescents. These and many more the foundation believes will better position the mother and child for a healthier life with less dependence on the men for their sustenance.

WBFA is one of the few foundations in Africa committed to the well being of mother and child survival with a strong penchant to end violence in its many ugly forms against women. Unlike many organisations working towards women's rights, the WellBeing foundation Africa works in number of glorious ways to encourage the development of all intrinsic qualities amongst the populace to enable self development as a means of ensuring community well being through its participatory model, multi sector approach and a host of other holistic approaches.

The foundation believes in creating opportunities for Women’s health, youth and community development. Series of poverty alleviating programmes embarked upon to create wealth has been applauded by several international bodies as a means to meet the needs of a beleaguered society. Helping to shape women's perspective to life despite being plagued by life threatening conditions, psychological trauma and medical complications. They now have a voice of their own; they can dream big without fear of prejudice and are tasked severally to set the scope of strategy works to end poverty as a panacea to development and meaningful sustainability that can withstand the test of time. The government's inclusion of 35% women participation in politics and economic development is laudable and should be sustained. To further awaken the African women from her slumber, the founder Mrs Saraki described the “enduring” woman as “a woman who, despite all the challenges, is utterly committed to achieving her vision to transform lives wherever she is”

WBFA’s vision for maternal newborn and child health is unrivalled, as evident in the glowing number of pregnancy & child health cases attended to in the last 10 years. The African Women need in this regard is special compared to her counterparts in other developed continents. Mrs Saraki has reiterated the foundation’s desire to empower the lives of 5.3 million Women in Africa by 2015, coincidentally, the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals impact assessment also winds up by 2015. This is arguably one of the most ambitious projects embarked upon by an African establishment. Philanthropic gestures of the WBFA have further raised hope, rehabilitating the blind, deaf and giving them a new lease of life. The founder through the foundation also paid a visit to the London prison to observe the practices that could be replicated back home in Nigeria thus touching individual lives through reforms and rendering assistance to the community. Collaborative effort with indigenous and international organisation will be favourable towards achieving this lofty goal; awareness has since kicked off on the domestic scene across the country with workshops and symposium organised to educate women and men on various health precautions to reduce child mortality and ensure safe delivery, enterprise creation, human right and disaster response. Retrospectively, the Well Being Foundation Africa has set the precedence for the emancipation of the African Women to succeed. All that is needed is to take advantage of this noble gesture to correct the ills in our society.

Wale Bakare writes for BailiffAfrica. He’s a social media enthusiast with strong affection for Agriculture, politics and conservation of the environment.