The Gbonse Foundation for Economic Development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), on Saturday held a medical outreach in the Igando area of Lagos to empower women and support families through healthcare and economic initiatives.

The event, which drew scores of men and women, was organised in partnership with Hygeia HMO Ltd. Free medical checks, including weight, blood pressure and blood sugar tests, were conducted for participants by three medical doctors and two nurses. A representative of Hygeia HMO, Ojerinde Temitope, said the partnership was part of efforts to promote community health and wellness.

Founded by Mrs Helen Olaniyan, the Gbonse Foundation provides convenient and flexible loans with no collateral for women to grow their businesses. It also supports skill acquisition in areas such as shoemaking, fashion designing and barbing, while offering small loans to help women fund their children’s education at kindergarten, primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

Speaking with Vanguard, Mrs Olaniyan, who also serves as chairman of the foundation, said the initiative was born out of her passion to uplift women.

“The birth came about as a result of passion for helping the ordinary women, the grassroots women, who are less privileged and are struggling to cater for their families. It’s been something I’ve had passion for for a long time and I’ve been supporting women and the girl child. But now, God has given me the vision to forge ahead to do it on a wider scale,” she said.

She explained that Gbonse Foundation’s mandate goes beyond providing loans, focusing instead on empowering women to unlock their full economic potential and strengthen their families.

“Gbonse Foundation is not just about loans. It’s a foundation-based development and non-governmental organisation. It’s like a credit to support women. We’re not just about loans. Our mandate is to empower women for opportunities to unlock their full economic potential, strengthen their families, because when a woman succeeds, the family also succeeds.

“We also build communities through small, life-changing financial support to women to help their small businesses triumph so they can support their children as well at school.“We aim to support women working hard to scale their businesses whether small or medium businesses. Majority of our beneficiaries are women facing poverty and exclusion. We believe that when women succeed, families succeed and communities benefit.”

Mrs Olaniyan further explained that the foundation supports the education and skills development of members’ children.

“When women enrol, we’re going to support their children to acquire skills. Some of them have talents but they don’t have the funds and opportunities to develop such skills. At Gbonse Foundation, we’ll help them in learning skills like hairdressing, barbing, fashion designing, whatever skill they want to learn, for those who don’t want to further their education.

“But those who want to further their education, we’ll be supporting them through their mothers who will be members of the foundation. We’ll help them get scholarships, pay their school fees while their parents pay back in bits and generally support them in the path they choose.”

She added that the foundation plans to gradually expand its programmes to reach women across different states of the federation.

Some beneficiaries expressed appreciation for the initiative.

Credit: Vanguard