Date: 2017-08-23

In this piece, AHMED 'LATEEF reflects on how a female lecturer, Dr Kadijat Kehinde Kadiri of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Ilorin, used social media platform to raise funds to rebuild the home of a centenarian in Ago-Oja, Asa Local Government Area of Kwara State.

The advent of technology and attendant innovations that many citizens are still skeptical about its desirability is not in doubt. This is primarily because of the evils associated with it. It is through the ubiquitous nature of the technological devices that many atrocious acts, that could have been noticed and appropriate punishments meted on the culprits, are now committed with ease.

While efforts are made to salvage the situation with intense surveillance, those in the art of using technology dubiously are also getting armed with requisite skills to undo the ploy of those in the security circle mounting watch.

Little wonder the rate in which some individuals employ technology via internet facilities for selfish motive, has assumed an alarming proportion. Through internet scam, which has become well known in our society, men of the underworld prowl like wild animals, seeking who and what to devour.

There are questionable characters, who also leverage on the ease brought by internet to defraud unsuspecting members of the public by opening fake social media accounts with primary motive of milking anyone who falls prey. Examples are abound in the society today such as facebook, twitter, whatsapp and instagram among other platforms. These are the platforms through which several people in the world are being made to forcefully cough out their hard earned money to the dubious and those who relish deceit.

With attendant fear across the land over whether such platforms could still be used to convince the well to do in the society to bring smile to the face of the downtrodden, a female lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Ilorin, Dr (Mrs) Kadijat Kehinde Kadiri, took the bull by the horn through her non-governmental organization, The Health Builders Initiative.

To her, some individuals still have human milk in their eyes and are ready to listen and do the needful for the less privileged in the society. Surprisingly, a social platform was what she employed to build a house worth N1million for a centenarian, Mrs Aminat Salau Alabi, in Ago-Oja Community, Asa Local Government Area of Kwara State.

What started like impossibility yielded fruit. Thanks to her passion for photography, which actually aided her intention. Through several pictures, which she uploaded on her instagram on the plight of the old woman, whose muddy apartment was about collapsing, responses poured in torrent across the globe. Individuals on her page on social media platform contributed some amount of money to make the project a reality, and within the spate of four weeks, the building, which was about falling off, was pulled down, rebuilt, painted and furnished.

The help did not just stop at rebuilding the house alone, the centenarian popularly known as Iya Ikirun was also assisted with food stuff while some items were also procured for her petty trade. For the old woman and members of Ago-Oja community, Saturday November 19, 2017 would not depart so quickly from their minds. It was all euphoria and a dream come true when the house was formally opened for use of the woman. Emotion ran high at the ceremony like event when Dr (Mrs) Kehinde Kadiri, reminisced on what influenced her decision to embark on the project.

The lecturer, who could not control her emotion, burst into tears to the admiration of members of the community and others, who in turn, showered prayers and praises on her for being courageous and bold to carry out such project, particularly in a rural setting that seldom enjoys attention of well to do in the society.

She said her passion to conceive the project was always coming with a thought that the beneficiary must have been a good woman whose divine help, was facilitated through her.

The don particularly urged members of the community to live good life and extend hands of fellowship to their neighbours, pointing out that help of Almighty God is infinite.

She, however, noted that she was able to raise money for the project through she called "crowd funding".

"Actually, this project started from my passion for photography. I normally come to rural areas to take pictures and upload on social media. So, that is the essence of my own passion until when I started uploading my pictures on social media, people were responding to it, to the extent that one of my followers decided to pay school fees for a girl that was sent out of school after I uploaded her pictures. One of my followers also said we should construct a bore hole for the people in this community.

"So, when we were doing the commissioning of this bore hole, that was when we noticed the old woman in the dilapidated muddy house. So, I was curious to know something about the old woman. I told the Head of the village that I want to know something about the old woman, that my mind is just telling me that there is a story about the woman, and the village head introduced me to the old woman. I asked her questions, we took pictures and after which we uploaded them. "The pictures generated interest of my followers and we decided to help the woman with her home because the home was very dangerous for an old woman of her age. So, that was how we started crowd funding on social media. We were able to get money to build a new house for the woman. We have built a room self contain including kitchen and toilet. That is what we are able to build for the woman. We spent like N1million to build the house and we generated everything from social media".

On what informed the choice of Ago-Oja, the female lecturer said, "Actually, I just passed through this place before, I have never been here. Just like I said, it started with passion for photography. I was looking for a place to start taking pictures, looking for the rural settlements to start taking pictures. We went to some other communities in Asa Local Government but we were not given a warmth reception by the leaders of the communities. They were little a bit not receptive. We went to the first and second communities.

"So, that day when we were about going back to Ilorin when somebody said, can't we just check this community (Ago-Oja), because we were almost disappointed, that we were just trying to help you, we are not demanding any money from you. When we came to Ago-Oja, we asked for the Baale of the community, we met him and he gave us a very warmth reception. We exchanged telephone numbers and thereafter, he was always calling us and that was how we settled in Ago-Oja since March till this time. Through this initiative, we also facilitated a bore hole project commissioned for use on 27th of May, 2017.

"Mama's house project is the first time I will be doing crowd funding on social media. The previous projects were from my followers on Instagram. It was a family that single handedly did this bore hole. It wasn't as if I went to them that they should to do something for us. It was my pictures that propelled and compelled them, that these people have a problem. I just want to say that my pictures were telling stories and people were reacting.

"When we started the house project of Mama, in the first one week, it was encouraging because we were able to get like over N300,000. So, to a large extent, I can say it is encouraging because that is the first time I will be doing some thing like that. So, we hit N500,000, that was when we started the building. At a point, people stopped sending money. You cannot blame them because they didn't see what they were sending for.

"We now used our own initiative that once we hit N500,000 we will start the building, and we started the building. Immediately people saw that we were uploading pictures of the building, people were shocked, and that really made them to donate more. So, I think we have good Nigerians, people are just skeptical about what the initiator of a particular idea is using their money for. And people have witnessed on several occasions, whereby somebody will start a particular fund raising like this and they will siphon the money. But I think that to a large extent, I have been able to convince that we have good people that are trustworthy".

Speaking on her NGO, Dr (Mrs) Kehinde Kadiri said, "Concerning my organization, The Health Builders Initiative, it is an upcoming NGO because we just started this March. We started with our Malaria campaign in this community too. When we started, we were getting positive feedback from people and that was what really made us to continue.

"The NGO basically is about ensuring healthy living for people in rural communities. We focus our attention on rural communities, because people normally ignore the people that are in rural settings. They mostly concentrate their efforts on the people in the urban areas. So, that is what The Health Builders Initiative is all about. It is all about caring for people, ensuring that they live a healthy life. We are trying to do our little bit to improve the life or the health of people.

"Also, our NGO, we did Malaria Campaign in March. We came back to this community in June when we distributed clothes to both men, women, children and babies. And we were able to pay school fees for one girl (Primary School) in Afon. We have done like four projects now. It took us four weeks to build the house. But we have started the crowd funding on social media like three or four weeks before the commencement of the building. From the start of the first picture that was uploaded about Mama, till now, it is like two months we did everything with Campaign".