NIGERWIVES NIGERIA
the Association of foreign women married to Nigerians
NIGERWIVES NIGERIA - IBADAN, OYO STATE BRANCH
2019 ANNUAL REPORT
By President: Helen CHATBURN-OJEHOMON
In 2019, our paid members totalled 30, but we had approximately 40 Nigerwives attending meetings and 50 on our official Whatsapp group. The 40 participating members come from 23 different countries and range in age from members in their 20s to those in their 80s. We met every month this year aside from December when our Christmas Party took the place of our monthly meeting. The average attendance at our monthly meetings throughout 2019 was 13, with our highest number (21) coming in November when we also celebrated Pat’s birthday with her at her home. We are grateful to Helen, Pat, Hayat, Olga, Gloriastene, Amelia, Lola, Sindi, and Vanessa, who all opened their homes to host us this year. We will continue to follow our tradition of welcoming each other into our homes on alternating sides of town through our meetings as a way of promoting our sisterhood and community.
2019 was a sensational year for Nigerwives Ibadan, Oyo State Branch. Our spectacular fundraising concert, the many milestones we celebrated with our members, the continued success of our annual plant sale, the new initiatives we have been working on with the Omoyeni Special School, the inroads we have made with the Nigeria Immigration Service, and our many new members have been some of the highlights of this year.
We celebrated several important events and milestones in the lives of our members this year with Amelia’s daughter’s engagement, Hayat’s son’s family’s send-off, Sindi’s son’s 21st birthday, Alla’s 60th birthday and 40th anniversary, and more. We also travelled to Abeokuta together in October to celebrate Ogun State member Laila Oyedele’s 60th anniversary. We grieved deeply with our sister Ursula over the loss of her beloved son Akin, as well as with our sister Kate who lost her dear brother, our sister Gloriastene who lost her legendary mother (aged 103) and with the family of Seetha Ohalete, a Nigerwife we met a few times who sadly passed away in the early part of 2019. May their souls rest in perfect peace.
Our year was packed with events in 2019. We hosted our annual Plant and Book Sale on April 27th, 2019. We were very pleased to partner with some of our community members to make this event a success, including the owners of Cocoa Mall who donated the space outside Dugbe Shoprite for us to use, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture who donated about 80 seedlings and plants for us to sell, Ibadan International School who loaned us tables and chairs for the day, and Guru Media who covered the Plant Sale on social media and put together a very nice video of the event. Of course, our green-fingered members also donated generously from their own gardens and all lent a hand on the day to run the sale. In total, we raised NGN112,775.00 for our Nigerwives’ community projects at the 2019 Plant and Book Sale.
Our Project Manager, Lola, also spearheaded a new fundraising event in 2019: a charity fundraising concert featuring the popular visually impaired Nigerian singer and producer: Cobhams Asuquo. The event was held at NuStreams Events Centre on May 4th, 2019.
With a lot of effort in selling tickets and organizing the event, we were able to hold a lovely concert which not only featured Cobhams but also many up-and-coming Ibadan-based artists including the Omoyeni Special School (OSS) choir.
In total, we were able to raise NGN646, 000.00 to support the OSS through the Cobhams concert!
We expanded our community development efforts in 2019 by making the decision to support specific initiatives at the Omoyeni Special School. We were able to donate 3 bookshelves and 48 slates in the early part of the year, 5 radios, 4 memory cards with recorded storybooks, and provide 60 students and their teachers with Christmas gift packages at the end of the year. We also decided to focus on menstrual health for the female boarders at OSS and have embarked on a menstrual pad provision project. The idea is for us to sponsor the girls with pads every month for a 2 year period.
Sponsorship for this initiative is still being sought before we embark on this project. Furthermore, we paid a visit to examine the Braille Collection at the Oyo State Public Library in Dugbe this year. This was an eye-opener as it revealed that the collection has not been updated in years! We also supported Guru Media by donating to them for social media training which was held in the second part of the year.
This year, members of our Branch, led by Pat, spearheaded a national Nigerwives Book Publication Project. The editorial committee, made up of Pat, Doreen, Kathie, Gloriastene and Ursula worked with a publisher on this project, which was announced at the Nigerwives National AGM. Having good records of the contributions of Nigerwives to society is an important goal that we are all committed to achieving. By the end of December, contributions had been collected from Nigerwives all over the country and we look forward to the next stages of this project and hopefully a book coming out soon!
2019 marked the 40th anniversary of Nigerwives and the Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held in Lagos. Helen, Olga, Ursula, Malita, Yulia, Ira, Lola, Gloriastene, Doreen, Sarah and Amelia all attended the event and had a wonderful time meeting sister Nigerwives from around the country and unwinding at the Gala night.
New immigration policy also impacted Nigerwives this year when it was announced that all migrants (which includes anyone who is not a Nigerian citizen) would need to present themselves for biometric registration at the Nigeria Immigration Service. This prompted the Branch Executive to pay a courtesy visit to the Comptroller General, Oyo State to try to secure prompt attention to Nigerwives for this activity. As a result, we have been able to officially introduce ourselves to the Comptroller and develop some goodwill between the NIS and our Branch. The e-Registration went on smoothly for those Nigerwives who registered as a group. Some Nigerwives were also able to get their CERPAC at the Oyo State NIS during this time period. The next step will be for the new executive to find out the practicalities of obtaining Special Immigrant Status for us here in Ibadan. With the goodwill we have built, I hope we can continue to enjoy good relationships at NIS and beyond.
Our last event of the year was the annual Christmas party, which this year was held at China House for a Chinese buffet on December 8th, 2019.
We were pleased to be joined by 3 members of Abeokuta Branch, lots (19!!!) of children and grandchildren, a long list of husbands (who happily filled up a table), and a few friends of Nigerwives, as well as some “grown-up” Nigerchildren. As usual, our excellent party hostesses Olga and Yulia kept the party lively as we waited for Father Christmas to come out and give gifts to all of the children. A great time was had by all!
Overall, it has been a very productive year for Nigerwives. As my 4-year term as President comes to an end, I would like to thank all members for your continued support and active participation in our branch activities. Our meetings are always lively and full of debate. This keeps us all very involved and invested in the goings-on of our group.
I would also like to thank the other members of the Branch Executive who have worked very hard to keep our Branch well organized and accountable for the past 4 years. Yulia has been a very supportive Vice
President since Lucy relocated, Ira (supported by Maria), has been a tireless Secretary – who never failed to remember anyone’s birthday on the WhatsApp Group, who worked very hard to make sure everyone was kept informed about meetings (those on WhatsApp and those who operate offline), and who kept excellent records through our monthly minutes. Olga (supported by Glenda) has been a super Treasurer and also a valued guide who has given lots of insight into the decisions we have taken. Thank you to Lola whose position as Project Manager was created in 2018 and who pushed us out of our comfort zone to organize a super concert in 2019; your regular visits to the OSS have been appreciated greatly!
As the new executive comes into office, I am sure they will continue to promote a strong branch.
Thank you all for our sistership, which is such a great part of living in this community.