Aramide Global Girls Initiatives launched six months after founder’s demise
…Family, friends, professional colleagues, others pay tribute
In celebrating a posthumous birthday of Aramide Oikelome, family, friends and professional colleagues of the late Religious editor of Daily Independent newspaper and founder of Bestspring Foundation, recently launched Aramide Global Girls Arise Initiative (AGGAI), as part of efforts made towards empowering adolescent girls and promoting the ideals of gender equality, which she represented till her death in June, this year.
Albert Oikelome, an associate professor of Music, University of Lagos, and husband to Aramide said he feels fulfilled because when his wife was alive, she was passionate about pursuing her dreams, which was to empower the less-privileged girls.
Addressing journalists at the launch, Oikelome said: “I hope to see the initiative go global and the girls who have been empowered coming back to give back to the initiatives.
According to him, the family would have loved to see her crystallise the project and bring it into a proper structure, which the family is trying to build today.
“This is what she spent her life doing, reaching and empowering girls across communities and cities in Nigeria.what we are trying to do now is to put together all the broken fragments into a unified whole before launching it into worldwide stream,” he said.
On the sustainability of the dream now that the founder is no more, Oikelome said: “That’s exactly is the reason why we are here to solicit the assistance of her friends and loved ones in filling that gap, financially. I must tell you that there are people who are ready to do the work; to carry on from where she stopped, the major challenge is finance, which is why we are calling on everyone to come onboard. We are calling on those who have the money but do not have the time, to come up, so that we can together fill that gap. “Again, we need people that can help in mentoring the children. For instance, we have the need for a ‘Save-a-girl Initiative, within the larger initiative, in terms of sponsoring children, specifically girls in their education. So, we can have people to do that.
If we can have a family to sponsor a child; donate to the wellbeing of that child, of course, it will go a long way in actually filling that gap. By the grace of God, we have partners who are willing and ready to do the work.”
He also expressed the optimism that the initiative left behind by her wife would blossom.
“I hope to see her work go global. And I believe by the grace of God, it will happen. I also hope to see the girls also come back to give to that initiative too. Not just to the Global Girls alone, but to Goshen Orphanage, and other projects she initiated. She has sown, and it is imperative that she must reap, even though she is no longer physically present with us here,” the university don said.
Modupe Ayeni, member, board of trustees of Bestspring Foundation, said that the launching of the initiative provides an opportunity to coordinate and put together all the interventions of the late Aramide to make it bigger and global.
“I see this initiative go global because we will minister to more girls and more partners. We will be attending to everything about the girl child, their sexual life, relationship, education, among others,” Ayeni said.
Sam Eboigbe of Sam Eboigbe & Co. Estate Surveyors and Valuers, who spoke with Businessday SUNDAY said the late Mrs Oikelome was like an angel to the family.
“Words are completely inadequate to describe her. If you look at her life, you would see that God really destined her for a purpose in life. She was a bridge builder and I called her an angel. The vacuum she left behind would be very difficult to fill,” Eboigbe said.
He commended Aramide’s initiatives while alive, expressing the optimism that her works would really outlive her.
Nike Lamai, who runs a womenfocused non-governmental organisation, Hadassah Healing Foundation, spoke about how she came in contact with the late Mrs.oikelome and the robust partnership that flourished between them.
Opeyemi Olowopo, one of the beneficiaries of the Aramide interventions in Ijegun, a suburb community in Lagos, while speaking on behalf of other girls, said the demise of Mrs. Oikelome was a big loss to her and many girls who benefited from her motherly role.
She said that Mrs. Oikolome was a mentor, mother and that her impact on many girls was so great and would remain indelible in their hearts.
Opeyemi also said she lost her biological mother in May 2020, a month before the death of Aramide.
“She was like everything to me- a mother, a mentor, a confidant, name it. There were places I have been to with her that I never imagined I would get to and the calibre of people she exposed us to, during seminars. I thank God for a life well spent. She positively impacted our lives in Ijegun. Many wayward girls were rescued and many lives were saved by her efforts. We will never forget her,” she said.
Aramide Oikelome, who until her death in June this year was a Girls’ Right Advocate and Founder, Girls Arise Initiative, in addition to running Goshen Home & Orphanage, among other initiatives.