Serving over 80, 000 people food daily in Pakistan, a humanitarian, an entrepreneur,and a religious crusader, Pastor Tinuola Babafemi, through her Non-Government Organisation (NGO), House of Praise and Prayer (HOPAP), is on her mission to end hunger with her project, ‘PROJECT FEED 5000’ in Nigeria. Adeola Ogunlade met her..
Why are you focusing on ending hunger? Is it about your background?
Yes. I was brought up in a Christian home – father, an Elder of The Apostolic Church and mother, a Deaconess. They were very devoted to their religion. My parents loved Christ and they brought us up in the same manner. I particularly followed in their footsteps. I loved to go to church, anything of God, and of the Christian religion. That is where the interest in having a House of Praise and Prayer, HOPAP, came from. It is the background I was born into.
My name is Tinuola Babafemi. I am a Nigerian/Canadian. My parents are from Ilesha, but we grew up in Ibadan. I did most of my secondary school and some part of my education in some parts of Ibadan, before I moved on to Canada. We started this charitable Ministry on the 15th of December 2015 and this year by the grace of God, we will be celebrating our seventh anniversary. We are a Pentecostal Ministry serving diverse communities through our Food Pantry/Kitchen and Project Feed 5000, aiming to see the end of hunger in Ontario by 2029. We are preachers of the gospel of Christ and intercessors, praying for everyone in need of prayer with an assurance of testimonies through faith.
To achieve this, we provide religious services at an established house of worship with services conducted in accordance with the tenets and doctrines of the Pentecostal faith.
What led to this initiative?
One of the biggest problems for people is financial instability. Due to the high cost of living and unemployment, a lot of people cannot afford decent accommodation and they end up becoming homeless, thereby unable to have proper meals. We have been working on helping people living in poverty within our congregation and the community by feeding and making available gift vouchers, groceries, and household items to cater to basic needs. At the same time, we feed their spiritual needs by preaching the gospel and bringing them to the knowledge of Christ, His love, and compassion towards mankind. In order for this to take place, we introduced partnership schemes that will enable us to achieve our goal of feeding the needy in the most effective and efficient manner. And to the glory of God, we have been doing this for a couple of years. The idea of creating a food pantry and kitchen to help the community came to me 10 years ago when I found myself having to make the difficult choice between paying rent or buying groceries and sacrificing food to have enough for my children. I remember the struggles I faced. I begged the bus drivers for free rides and had no means of cooking the collected groceries from food banks because I was homeless. As an immigrant single mother of two teenagers, I had to eat what I was given and not what I grew up eating in my culture or what I wanted to eat. After my experience with food insecurity, I was determined to make sure no one had to go through such a phase in their lives. I started it in Canada and I still run it in South Africa and Pakistan. I decided to come home when it is needed most. Now, as CEO, armed with years of culinary experience and firsthand knowledge of what it’s like to turn to a food bank as a lifeline, I am leading HOPAP’s food pantry and kitchen to become a pillar in the community.
In Canada and other places where you are reaching out, how many people are befitting of your intervention?
Daily, we reached out to 80, 000 people in Pakistan alone last month. It will be forever.
Where are you doing this in Nigeria?
We are starting from Ibadan to Ilesha and Delta State. Our initiatives will be through registration. Although some people said nothing works in Nigeria, I don’t want to believe that. We will follow due diligence and make a success of this project.
When there is hunger, women, and children are mostly affected, what are you planning to do?
It is a general feeling, from our registration, we will be able to aggregate the number of women and children and provide the needed meal. We will be distributing the meal from the figure we get for each family on our database.
Are you going to provide other social interventions in Nigeria?
Through HOPAP’s food pantry, my team and I not only provide food, but also other support to help communities make ends meet. We assist with other important needs because we are aware that people are in desperate need of things aside from food. First, when people are hungry, it is not their fault. I used to tell people being broke is not being poor. Things go wrong. People get broke due to divorce, loss of a loved one or the death of someone in the family. Some people just need counselling and a support system. We are open to providing some form of support if we have partners and people who are willing to share their expertise with us. We are ready.
What are your projections in terms of numbers that you are reaching out to?
We cannot give a figure because we don’t know what happens in Nigeria. We are hoping for the best. We hope it does not get worse. We are hoping it gets better so that we will not have to reach out to so many people. If the situation gets worse, we are willing to reach out to as many people.
Are you going to go beyond giving food and sharing the gospel of Jesus with them?
Yes, we will do that. We will go beyond giving them physical food and preaching.
Are you partnering other institutions?
We are open to partnership. We need their advice, encouragement, and support as nobody can do it all. We need the expertise of other people. We are open. Beyond hunger, yesterday I met with someone who is running low-cost housing in Pakistan and is planning to do the same in Nigeria.
