Mrs. Sophy Nwanneka Mbanisi, a native of Oraukwu in Anambra state, is a graduate of Sociology from University of Lagos. She is the founder of Healing Heart Foundation (HHF), based in Lagos.
In this interview with IME AKPAN, she says the widow and children-centred Foundation was borne out of her love for poor women and children, recalling her childhood experience with 20 other children in a home where food was available, but they were deprived of it
What inspired you to setting up the HHF?
Setting up this foundation was something that happened naturally. Nobody coerced me into doing it and neither did I start it to show off. It came naturally because I love giving and I have always had compassion on the poor. There is this deep pain I always feel in my heart whenever I come across the less privileged in the society. Remember that God urged us to be our brother’s keeper, so while I set a goal for myself towards reducing the suffering of the poor, little did I know I was answering a divine call to put a smile on the faces of others.
My family members, friends and associates always encouraged me to give, though they always advised me to save as well. The truth is that I cannot stop giving because that is me. More so, the joy I derive from doing so cannot be explained.
Fifteen years ago, I saw in a revelation a multitude of women and children with longing eyes craving to know the person standing before them. Behold that figure was my humble self standing in their midst and handing out gifts to them. The Lord also confirmed this revelation through several Christian friends. I immediately intensified my act of giving and at that point, more people were drawn to me for help.
In the passage of time, God gave me a name of the organisation as Healing Heart Foundation. Truly, giving has healed many hearts and like everything God is interested in, the whole thing started taking shape. Men and women who could share ideas and experiences started showing interest to help. What I feel for the poor is compassion not pity, because pity will fizzle out with time but compassion is a virtue. On the poor and needy of our times, I can never see one and look the other way because there is a force that attracts them to me.
Why did you choose children and women?
I derive special joy in what I do and I would rather go hungry than let a hungry person go. This is because I know what hunger is and I have been there, but God prepared me ahead of this since I was nine years old. My siblings and I were sent to live in the home of our pastor, which was a communal setting strictly for close family friends of the pastor. Though both the pastor’s family and mine were well-to-do, we were raised under strict measures to know that life is not a bed of roses.
My mother had gone to Teachers’ Training College and my father was too busy that he couldn’t cope with raising five children and two maids alone, so we were sent to live with the pastor for three years.
Food was not surplus there, especially for the children and beverages and other things were seen as luxury. Whenever my father visited with provisions, my siblings and I would smuggle some out; prepare it and drink in secret until the day the bubble busted and such luxury was withdrawn. Bread for us was sliced to our number of about 20 children in that home then. My case was that of knowing there was food but it was beyond reach, that was very painful and that compassion was what gave birth to the HHF.
In what ways have you used the Foundation to better the lot of your immediate community?
In my immediate community we have organised free medical care for people where some health personnel, led by Dr. Ibiwunmi Akinde of Isolo Local
Council Development Area, screened women for cervical cancer, blood pressure, blood sugar and were also given drugs. One of the women who tested positive for cancer was told what to do. Without HHF carrying out that free medical care, that woman wouldn’t have known her status. We have also carried out healthcare seminars relating to HIV, malaria, and blood pressure.
From time to time, we reach out to the poor in the community and distribute food. For example, we went to distribute food under the Isolo Bridge two weeks ago.
Children are also not left out of our care. We adopted a public school called Estate Nursery and Primary School with the approval of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), to feed pupils. This project is dear to our heart because a lot of kids are denied balanced diet due to the harsh economic situation of the country. With our ‘a-kid-a-lunch programme,’ we have bridged the gap of learning on an empty stomach. Promasidor PLC is one of the corporate organisations that support us product-wise in virtually every project we do.
We have done so much and our joy is that our good work is spreading. Currently, we are trying to raise fund for a widow at Igbobi Orthopedic Hospital, because she can’t pay her hospital bill. In my village community meeting in Lagos, we have trained the women there on how to make stove wick, local insecticide, liquid soap and disinfectant.
What is the mission and vision of the foundation and how have they been achieved?
We have this vision of reducing poverty to its barest minimum even though the Bible says that we shall always have the poor amongst us. Our dream, which we are gradually turning into reality, is to alleviate poverty among widows and indigent women. They should be able to live a happy independent life with sustainable source of livelihood and access to all the basic necessities of life. That is why our slogan is “To better life; inspiring hope.”
To achieve this, we at HHF work to improve the living standards of neglected widows and indigent women and children in rural and urban communities. The children we reach out to are those from the less privileged homes, so we have been at the forefront of campaigning against poverty in the lives of women, and we thank God for the results so far. We organise summits from one place to another where we gather women and teach them vocational skills. So far, we have been to Iwaya, Mafoluku, Ajegunle, Ejigbo, Ilasa, Igando, Idi-Araba, Badagry in Lagos, and Umubor in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state.
We also run an annual vocational programme known as Women Economic Empowerment for Development and Sustainability (WEEDS), where over 400 women have been trained and empowered in different skills so as to make them financially independent.
The WEEDS training comes up every October/November and usually at the end of the training, we pick about 20 women who performed exceptionally well and empower them with N10, 000 each to start a business. We always come up with skills that do not require much capital to set up. We have been doing this since 2012 and many widows have benefitted.
How is the Foundation funded?
By God’s grace, I have been funding the organisation from my own pocket and with the support of my husband, family members, friends and well-wishers, especially in times of emergency and during festive periods, and I’m so thankful.
The work is enormous honestly. I am trying to get foreign grants, but all my efforts have not yielded fruits. Let me use this medium to solicit for public support, because we need to build a skill acquisition centre for all our trainings.
Some people believe that most Nigerian NGOs or Foundations only spend a little or nothing out of monies from their local and/or international sponsors. What differentiates your organisation from the others?
I have heard that some NGOs divert the funds given to them to touch lives for personal use. In fact, a friend of mine who works for an NGO related how his boss used the foreign grants meant for their NGO for personal use and when the partners discovered it, they stopped partnering with them. I also heard how a celebrity used the funds she sourced on behalf of the poor from a foreign organisation for personal use. Anybody doing such a thing should desist from it because it is not good.
These are the people giving NGOs bad names, but that should not discourage organisations and individuals from giving because everybody is not the same. Even Christ had a thief as a disciple. Like my husband always tells me, anything given to you in the name of the widows should be used for the widows.
Anybody partnering with Healing Heart Foundation financially will not regret it, because we keep records and have men and women of integrity as volunteers and staff.
How do you manage the Foundation and your home front?
It has not been easy, but I give praise to God for the good staff and volunteer workers we have. At the home front, my husband is a blessing; he has been there for me and supports me financially, morally and otherwise. My children are one of God’s best gifts to me. They are all grown now and when occasion demands, they assist the organisation as volunteers.
How do you tackle conflicts when they arise?
It takes wisdom to tackle any conflict that arises. When wisdom is applied, neither the family nor the organisation will suffer.
What difficulties do women who run NGOs face?
Letting your family members to believe and buy into your vision is one, because it’s of no use when those who should support and encourage you don’t buy into it?
Managing an NGO and the home, especially when your kids are still very young, can be a nightmare. Also, getting dedicated staff and volunteer workers don’t come easy; it takes divine intervention to get good and capable hands. Running an NGO is easy with constant funding and good hands. We have a lot of projects to better people’s lives and inspire hope, but funding is our major limitation.
This interview first appeared in Blueprint, May 2014 edition
