As Humanity First present score card in Nigeria

Humanity First, a charitable trust established to promote and safeguard human life and dignity has said it has provided support to over 5 million people globally and over 1 million people in 2023 in 64 countries of the world.

The Chairman of the organisation in Nigeria, Dr Habeeb Yekeen stated this during a press briefing on the activities of the organisation in 2023.

Dr Yekeen stated that the feat was made possible via nine food banks, food donation exercises, visits to the poor and vulnerable and support during drought famine and other natural disasters, adding that Humanity First has also involved in projects that will assist communities across the world to be self-sufficient in food production.

According to him, some of them include supporting farming communities in the Central River Region with irrigation, seeds, tools, fertilizer and fencing to grow a range of crops in Gambia; establishment of a number of rooftop hydroponic gardens in Palestine; establishing a shea butter farm and factory to provide jobs and generate an income for HF for future projects in Ghana; looking to start processing of Palm oil in Guinea Bissau; as well as Crop Processing Plants deployed in many countries to enable processing of rice, cous, maize and cassava in Ivory Coast and Gambia.

He stated that HF has a total of 11, 317 orphans under her care and run three orphanages.

“On Global Health, Humanity first presently runs 11 hospitals and clinics globally and they attended to 772, 463 patients, adding that the organisation has two dedicated fully equipped mobile eye clinics and has treated over 54, 556 patients globally.

He told newsmen that in Nigeria, HFN has been able to distribution of seedlings to households to promote homestead farming; train individuals and families in best practices for homestead agriculture; adding that the organisation has also distributed food to 3,755 vulnerable across 30 locations to cushion the effect of the present hard times.

Yekeen stated that the group is also working with development partners to also start farming community in the nearest future.

He said: “Apart from food security which is the focus of this year’s telethon Humanity First has been able to offer assistance to over 14 million individuals globally in the following: Disaster relief: over 2 million in 249 events in 108 countries; community care: 172, 851 individuals supported globally through community development projects sponsored by Humanity first,” adding that HFN also runs an elderly person’s home.

“In the area of Knowledge for life: 269, 846 students are being assisted in one way or the other via provision of scholarship, attending HF schools with 71, 148 graduating in 91 schools and 54 training centres. On Water for life, 5,488, 048 are directly benefiting from HF’s 5,616 water installations across 30 countries in the world.

Yekeen stated that other activities of the organisation in Nigeria include “Disaster Relief: In 2023 HFN trained 80 victims of 2022 flood disaster in Port Harcourt Rivers State in 3 vocations; Clothes Bank: HFN runs a clothes Bank with 2 centers in Nigeria Abuja and Port Harcourt we also have 8 teams distributing clothes and other household items to vulnerable people across 8 states in Nigeria working under the disaster relief and programs team. The team distributed over 19,000 clothes to over 8000 individuals.

He added that “In 2023 HFN conducted three medical outreaches providing free health services to over 4000 Individuals in Nigeria. The Global health Team is also running a Clinic in Okooko a village in Oyo state and we provided subsidized healthcare to over 500 patients in 2023.

“Gift of sight: Humanity first Nigeria conducts a monthly free eye care camp in Kano State. In 2023 569 cataract operations were performed in 2023 and 1643 patients were attended to for various other eye related cases.

“Knowledge for Life: HFN through support from her development partners provides free education to over 50 students in 2 schools in Igbo Oruwo and Iye Osa in Oyo state Nigeria.

“Orphan Care: There are presently over 23 orphans under the care of HFN. The orphans are kept with their relatives and HFN provides funds for their upkeep and daily upkeep. HFN also provides support for the family who is taking acre of the orphans.

On how funds were raised for these projects, Dr Yekeen said the organisation’s fund raising team raised N4, 492, 877.40 to help support HFN activities through dedicated volunteers last year.

He disclosed that between January and March 2024 HFN has been able to conduct one 4-day free health services program in Ijebu Ode Ogun state attending to over 1200 patients; distribute over 1500 clothes and other household items to over 500 vulnerable people in 2 dedicated clothes distribution activities along with regular clothes donation in 2 centers; and dug two boreholes in Ogun and Kano states, to serve over 25,000 people across 10 communities.