Engr. Atinuke Wuraola Owolabi is an amazing woman. An accomplished, successful professional with an intimidating CV, she demonstrates her compassion for the less privileged by setting up Foundations to take care of them.
She took time out of her busy schedule to recently talk to BEATS about her Foundations:
Question: It’s our pleasure meeting you, madam. You have three NGOs, can you please tell us the difference between them and how they function?
Answer: Good afternoon Pastor Ladi and his team. It’s a privilege to have you here. My name is Engr. Wuraola Atinuke Owolabi, the Vice Chairman of the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria, member, Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), and also a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (FNIEEE).
My passion has always been to impact lives, and right now, we have three NGOs, one is Touch of Love and Lifting Hands Foundation, which we started about 5 years ago.
This foundation is to take care of vulnerable widows and aged people in the society, and the younger widows. What we do is empower them on different skills so that they would be able to take good care of their children. For the aged people, as most of them are retired or are not able to work, we got a house for them, like a recreation hub that they can come in the morning and leave in the evening so they can socialize to keep their body and mind active.
What do they do? We try to bring them together, instead of them just staying in the house. This helps to curb boredom; you know it affects the aged if they’re lonely. When you stay alone in the house and have nobody to talk to, it drains the brain and inherently, it could cause sickness and affect their health.
So, coming down to the Foundation, we have different games like draft, Ludo, Ayo Olopon; we even have DSTV that they can watch, and they tend to meet with their friends there. So if you feel, maybe you are 70 years old in your house, and you are already behaving like an old person, by the time you come to our Foundation and you see a woman of 80 calling you by your name, you’d quickly adjust yourself and know you are still young. So, that is what we do in the society, so far so good, we have been able to orientate them that the society also belongs to them.
I recall when we first started, they saw so many strange people coming to their homes to visit, but when they saw the consistency in our visitations, they paid attention and we told them we have a Foundation here. So we tell them, come around mama, instead of thinking on what to do or what to eat. When you come to the Foundation we will feed you; you play with your friends and also play different games as well.
Also, every second Saturday of the month, we are moving it to third Saturday of every month now, we organize health screening for them, where we bring medical practitioners to diagnose, attend to their ailments, and we give them free drugs. So, gradually, we are reducing the mortality rate.
You know, when you don’t have anybody to talk to, or people to talk to, or take good care of you; you will start thinking, before you know it, different kinds of ailments would set in. But now, you move from your home, you know that you are going to a place where you will enjoy; that tends to elongate your life span and to the glory of God, they are all doing well.
There was a time we visited an aged woman of about 90 or 85. She had a son called Baba Bolu; the son should be around 50years of age and also the grandson in the house, there wasn’t bed or anything. We went there very early in the morning to take them for eye-screening. When we got to the house, I reasoned that how could three generations of a family be living in this kind of environment, in serious, abject poverty? When we were talking to them, the woman was shaking, saying that they had nothing to eat the previous night. To the Glory of God, I had to call some of my friends and we renovated the house, bought them mattress and changed the place, and they were so happy. As for the boy in the house, we made sure that he got back to school and the boy is now doing well. So many of them have benefitted.
A Blind widow also came to our Foundation and was crying that her daughter had been withdrawn from school because they couldn’t afford school fees; we had to take this girl back to school from Jss2, with the help of the Chief of Staff, the girl is now in SS2 and she is doing well. Now, it is evident what we are doing in the society, making sure that we impact lives and we give people future, especially our youth. We shape them up basically, that is what we do in Touch of Lives and Lifting Hands Foundation; we care for the widow, aged, and also we empower them.
We also have WURVICAT Solar Foundation; this is the Foundation that was set up to train the youth in the society. We train and empower them on Solar Technology.
We have trained over 1000 youth across the nation on Solar technology and its opportunities, project management, safety, electricity; and other types of practical training. We train them on communication skills because we know that most of our youth lack communications skill. So, we try to groom them because they are the future of the nation; so that they can be useful to the society.
Now, we have flagged off another Foundation, which is WAO Capacity Building Initiative (Engr. Wuraola Atinuke Capacity Building Initiative) targeted at kids. We are trying to catch them young, hence we have various clubs in primary schools- Science, technology, Engineering, Mathematics which are taught to the pupils. The essence of these clubs is that, we want to empower our community kids that are vulnerable. Let’s take them back to the community because, when you look at our elite, by the time their children finish from schools, they don’t come back to the community once they go abroad for studies; but if we are able to empower the community kids, and then inspire them to study engineering, for instance, they tend to come back to their society, community and proffer solutions to the existing problems.
There are so many challenges we have in the society and we are bringing the kids back as they are the children of tailors, hairdressers and other artisans. So, we know they are not running away as they experienced these challenges in the community they grew up in and would have to proffer solutions.
So, basically what we are trying to do is produce tech-kids that are tech savvy; kids who know how to use technology. There was a time I went to different schools and I saw that some pupils were wearing tattered clothes. The principal drew my attention to a boy in Junior Secondary School. The boy came to school with sack; that was what he used for his knickers; I was moved, I began thinking how education could be possible for a boy like that, because by the time he is in the class, he would feel that people won’t want to come around him.
So, what we have done now is that, we deploy tailors to different schools to mend clothes, and the ones that are not good at all, we make afresh.
These are the things that we are doing in the community and we are also giving scholarships to the kids of the vulnerable to study engineering. We buy their JAMB registration form for them at the entry level so as to see that they take up relevant course in the university. We sponsor them in their 100 level to stabilize them. We just feel that we need to give back to the society and the community.
Even, in the Foundation whenever we are doing anything, we see the Muslim women singing praise and worship with us because they look at it, that this girl (Engr. Owolabi) is the one that is feeding us and that usually warms my heart about how love unites us all.
DO YOU HAVE PARTNERS THAT ARE SUPPORTING THIS FOUNDATION?
Firstly, it is about the passion I have and as an Engineer, I have a company, I take part of the profits to impact lives and I get support from friends, my husband and family friends. I still pray to God that since He has seen my genuine heart, He will raise destiny partners, so that we can touch lives. Right now, we are constrained because we don’t have much and we really want to do much more, I hope we can get enough partners in this great stride to saving humanity. I have been doing this before they asked me to join politics. They said, these are the kind of people they want in politics; people that can impact lives.
I know you are in APC, what is your position there?
I am a party member, but the last time I contested for Chairmanship position in Ifako-Ijaiye local government, I was asked to step down due to party supremacy. Although in my short campaign process, I felt the plight of the people in the community.
My life has always been to be with the grassroots because they are the ones that always feel the heat more as they have no voice and no one to speak on their behalf. What is politics? Politics is about serving people and by the special grace of God, if I am involved in government, aided by more private resources in Touching Lives, they will see and feel the impact that the government is doing a lot.
So you are just a stakeholder in politics?
Yes, right now, I am just a stakeholder in politics and in the party, but we are trusting God that He will do His best.
How do you see this current state of cruelty because of money, people going into rituals, killing children, and students, etc.? What do you think is the reason and how can it be curbed?
First of all, what we need to do is build “WE” community projects. By starting with the kids, if you are able to give them good orientation that community belongs to them and you don’t discriminate, by the time they grow up, if they realize that kids from rich and poor homes play together, they won’t know the difference. It is when they grow up that they start having this idea that you are not from my class, but if we are able to build WE community, it means the community belongs to us, my neighbour is my friend, and they grow up with it, it will help in looking out for one another and not wish harm to others or even act on it. This will help to curb so many vile things that is going on in the society.
What is happening in the world now? There’s widespread discrimination, nepotism even in Christian communities, but in the eyes of God, we are all one!
So, I think we need to go back to the grassroots and start building up the new generation; let the new generation see that the community belongs to us, whether you are poor or rich; protect your neighbor, see your neighbour as your friend.
Thank you for your time, madam.
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