The plight of Nigerians seems unending these days, the most pressing issues being insurgency and the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease. While Ebola takes a strong hold on the south, Lagos to be precise, Boko Haram has the north in its grip. Amidst the chaos some people are steadfast in their quest to give hope to victims of terrorism. One of such is the Ayahay Foundation which continues to give to communities around the nation.
The most recent attempt of the foundation was the GiftbasketNG event, a charity organized in the form of a picnic in Abuja.
“If we’re not careful, from the way this violence is going, each person is going to know somebody that knows somebody that has been affected by this crisis. So how do we come together in the spirit of unity?” asks Maryam Augie, Founder and Executive Director of Ayahay Foundation. With a concerned look on her face, she adds, “How do we change the discuss from all the destruction and the deaths to all the survivors?”
Ayahay Foundation was established after two of Ms Augie’s close friends, Fatima and Aisha Yahaya, died in a car accident (Ayahay is Yahaya spelled backwards.) The foundation, which is now made up of Maryam and about 20 other young individuals in different fields, has since 2013 been helping women and children especially, by equipping them with relevant entrepreneurial skills and providing them with relief materials.
More recently, Ayahay Foundation provided for the three northeastern states, Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, which have for a very long time been afflicted by attacks from terrorist group, Boko Haram.
“Right now, there are 3.3 million Nigerians affected by the violence directly. Another 9 million are affected indirectly. 1000 people go into the deeper regions of Niger every single week, 83 percent of them being women and children. That’s close to 10 percent of our population,” Ms Augie said.
“With GiftbasketNG, we’re trying to see how ordinary citizens and individuals can donate relief materials towards the north east. The problem is, it’s being looked at as a northern problem. 19,000 farmers are out of livelihood, 5,000 hectares of farmland are destroyed. Whether you like it or not wherever you are in the country that affects you. So what we’re trying to say is how do people from the south, to the north, to the east come together and donate these materials?”
The picnic, hosted by Chi Gurl and Aisha Augie Kuta, took place at the Sarius Palmetum Botanical garden, barricaded by highwalls, endless greenery, and tall lush trees deep in the heart of Maitama. It was all fun and games as kids hopped around in bouncy castles and young adults earned various prizes for winning musical chairs, sack races, and other competitions.
People huddled together and talked. As some people relaxed to the music, others sat and ate suya, and pushed it down with a chilled drink. The attendees were bright and colorful, dressed in all the colors of the rainbow, and the photographers didn’t miss a bit of the joie de vivre.
But the highlight of the show, however, was the donation to the relief effort. People came forward with items they could to share with the displaced people, who were squatting in camps, possibly the forests, with barely any protective shelter, food, and possibly water.
Onyinye Muomah, a writer, who attended the picnic and declared her full support for the initiative. “Most of us hear about [the] insurgency. But when we hear about it we think, how will this affect me? Will it come to my side? Will these bombers come to my side? We often don’t think about those people that are already affected. What’s happening to them? How are they feeding? How are they clothing? And for a young person like this who has many things going on for her, to take her time to do something about it, it is very inspiring.”
Ibrahim Isa, who works for an ICT firm and is also a member of the foundation does all he can to get more people to hear about the foundation and help out. “GiftbasketNG is kind of an awareness to launch what we are trying to do. I think it is a good initiative. People should be more involved in this. This could be any of us. We are all Nigerians, be it Muslim, Christian, or people that don’t worship anything. We have to reach out. We are all humans.”
Even though cash donations are accepted, the foundation is more keen on food items, toiletries, and utensils.
“Today is not about the funds. It is not about the materials. It is more about the awareness. The fact that people brought stuff, yeah we’re grateful about it. But it is more about the awareness,” says Ms. Augie, who works with NEMA and Red Cross to get all the relief materials out to the displaced people.
Asides from those organizations, Ayahay Foundation is looking at other ways to get more people to join in. One of these is to get the National Assembly on board.
“The National Assembly is the closest we have to unity in this country where each and every person representative of each and every corner of this country is there. So how does each member donate ten bags of rice? That’s nothing to them. That’s 3000 bags of rice. That’s 10 trailer trucks of food. That would make a whole lot of difference to the thousands of people who are displaced.”
Ms Augie is optimistic about the impact of the Giftbasket initiative and has big plans to help the displaced in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa and beyond with relief materials.
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