My Personal Ambition-FunkeSodade
FunkeSodade is a Health and Wellness Coach with about 10
years experience in health promotion. She is an AFPA-certified Nutrition and
Wellness Educator and successfully runs Hapas Wellness Center. She is a
Fundraising Coordinator forother charities and charitable projects such as the Better Chance for Babies Campaign, that
seeks to improve access to emergency care for sick newborns and preterms and
the N500m Research Endowment Fund for
the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. Being a multitalented
entrepreneur, she runs a food catering outfit and a cake business. She volunteers with the Spirit of David
Gospel Dance Club, Society for the Performing Arts in Nigeria and the
Physiotherapy Department of University College Hospital, University of
Ibadan. She loves children and loves to
cook.
My personal ambition is simply to see school feeding
established as a nutritional intervention and human developmental tool in
primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. . I have sacrificed a lot to see this
happen and grow up to this point but scaling-up is impossible without creating
partnerships with the government. As regards organizational growth, Nigeria has
some idiosyncrasies and so I believe that as we make efforts to create capacity
for Nigeria to address this nutrition crisis, specifically- advocacies for and
national policies that focus on strengthening the healthcare system, education,
human development and preservation of human dignity, eradication of poverty and
economic empowerment - organizations like ours will come into focus and as that
happens, there will be growth because the environment will be more favorable to
implement solutions. I and my team are open to dialogue and partnerships with
government and all stakeholders to effect this solution; in whatever capacity.
What is important is that this solution is refined and implemented.
I have personally decided to focus on the issue
of poor nutrition among school-aged children because of 3 main reasons. Growing
up, I was inspired by my disciplinarian mother who was a staunch believer in
the concept of innate good in all men. She taught us to give of ourselves and
convince others to do same. She had been poor as a child but became a middle
income earner because she had gotten an education scholarship. She taught me to
put the needs of others before mine and put me on the path of charity. The
second reason is focused on human development. I have seen poverty rob people
of their dignity and it is their children, who never asked to be born, that
suffer the brunt of it. If these children make it past the age of 5 to
school-age, they deserve a better fighting chance at life; food to keep them
alive and education to give them opportunities, will go a long way in achieving
that dream. Lastly, from 1984-1996, under military administration in Nigeria, I
attended military primary and secondary schools where we got free and later,
subsidized lunch. That eased a burden for my mum and several families and made
me look forward to school. I wish to give other underserved children the same
delightful memories.