Chinwendu Obienyi
The Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation (IIF), at the weekend, launched a new initiative in memory of its Founder, late Mrs Ibidunni Ighodalo, who passed away on June 14, 2020, as part of activities to celebrate her 40th posthumous birthday.
The initiative, tagged ‘Project 40at40’, was unveiled in Lagos, in accordance with her last wish.
Speaking to newsmen at the unveiling, Chairman of the Foundation, Ituah Ighodalo, explained that the initiative was borne out of its late Founder’s desire to help couples struggling to have babies and enable them to become parents through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and intrauterine insemination.
According to him, the initiative which started in 2016, has seen about 40-50 per cent success recorded and added that the late founder’s desire for the foundation was to ensure she brought happiness and joy to people as much as she could.
“Around February this year, we were looking forward to her birthday and she asked that she wanted to support 40 couples at having their own babies and that is where the project 40at40 came from. Unfortunately, she passed away on June 14, this year but we want to ensure that no matter the cost, 40 couples will get the opportunity to go through the procedure and hopefully get a 100 per cent success.
Since her demise, IVF has enlarged and strengthened its board; governance structures have been put in place all in a bid to ensure capacity to deliver on her last wish and more and so we actively seek the support of everyone to keep this dream alive”, Ighodalo said.
He appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to assist in raising the needed funds, saying the Foundation was targeting about N150 million for the project.
Explaining the criteria needed to benefit from the initiative, Project Director, IIF, Dayo Richards, said applicants would have to apply via the Foundation’s website, www.ibidunniighodalofoundation.org and that all the applications must be supported by an official means of identification.
She said, “Also we will need contact details of all referees who are right standing in the society, couples must be legally married for 5 years and they must produce evidence of such and of course they must not have children. The cut-off age for the female spouse is 50 years and below as at the time of application, evidence of livelihood must be shown and confirmed by proof of both partners’ income statements.”