By Brown Chimezie
Sherifat Akintunde is from Abeokuta in Ogun state. She is the CEO of Hi5 LLC (a US based company), the President of Ajoke welfare foundation Nigeria, and USA.
Akintunde is also the Marketing Director of Life Events LLC (a U.S based Company) and the Director of Human Relations, InvisibleOne inc; a Nonprofit Theatre organization.
In this interview, the entrepreneur and philanthropist takes us through the inspiration behind her foundation, challenges faced and other issues.
Can you share the story of what inspired you to become a philanthropist, and how has your journey evolved over the years?
I started Ajoke Welfare Foundation, because I have deep passion for everyone , especially the elderly. The people or individuals the society do not care about or pay attention. In this generation, people are self-seeking, yet at Ajoke welfare foundation, our goal is to provide support for the needy. It is this passion that makes us who we are as an organization and that drives our programs and outreach.
Nigeria faces various socio-economic challenges. What specific area or causes do you focus on with your philanthropic efforts and why?
At Ajoke welfare foundation, our primary goal is to cater for the aged/elderly, yet we understand that the youth are the backbone of any society regardless of their location and that is why we create skill acquisition programs that will not only give them head knowledge, but it will likewise provide hands on exposure and experience to master these skills.
A practical example is the state of affairs in Nigeria and in some countries around the world. Hunger is a huge challenge even developing countries are faced with. Even in the US, you see billboards encouraging people to give in an attempt to reduce or eliminate hunger. At its early state, it is almost impossible to tell who is truly hungry for food and who is not. It is not written on people’s faces. That is why, Ajoke welfare foundation is catering to the elderly people who are no longer in the workforce and even those whose kids do not have the job or means to provide for them. It is a situation of survival almost everywhere. In doing this, we carefully select the kind of food we provide them from time to time. We just do not want them to eat, we want them to eat healthy.
What are your challenges so far? And how are you tackling them?
As a nonprofit organization, there are unlimited challenges that we encounter in the process of executing what we love to do. On a broader scale, inflation is quite a monster we can never tame. The cost of purchasing food is increasingly high, yet we cannot just stop providing support to these people that are trusting us to show up for them. That is why we are looking for more donors to give and volunteers to help us negotiate these prices. As we all knows, finance is the core challenges of any nonprofit organization. As such , we are welcoming new donors and volunteers to partner with us to help the very people that need our help in our communities.
Christmas is fast approaching, what are your plans for the vulnerable?
During the holidays, especially Christmas we connect with our communities to make sure no one feels left out of the celebration. We do this by providing gifts, meals, and palliatives.
Collaboration is crucial in addressing complex issues. Can you discuss any partnership or collaboration you’ve engaged in to maximize the impact of your philanthropy?
Very true. One of our strategies as an organization is not to create more and more programs, yet our strategy is to partner with individuals, businesses and /or companies and government parastatal who can help provide resources and materials to foster the organization in attaining her goals . Thus, positively impacting the very communities that need and deserve this help. Another strategy we implement is to partner with other nonprofit organizations in Nigeria, the USA and other countries across the globe.
Ever been moved to tears in the course of delivering your duties?
To be honest with you, running a nonprofit organizations can be overwhelming. Yes, there are times I just let it out and shed tears because when you see how other humans are living and surviving to live, it will definitely humble you and bring you to tears . No human deserves a lesser standard of living.
We were in two different communities, one in Lagos and the other in Ogun state, it was heartbreaking to see the horrible condition of living, how people in this communities are coexisting and living. My desires is that we can all come together to do something to help.
What advice would you give to the government as a philanthropist who has literally seen the high and the low??
For the government, we want to sincerely appreciate them for what has been done, it takes a lot to execute these reforms, programs, and subsidies; yet we want to encourage the government to do more. We strongly believe in them and their ability to do more for the citizens of Nigeria. We believe they can create windows of opportunities for the youths, entrepreneurs and make Nigeria a better all -round environment. We also appeal to the government to create reforms that will create an enabling environment for existing independent nonprofit organizations to deliver solutions to the complex issues in our communities.