The British Women Group has been touching and transforming the lives of women and children in Lagos for over 54 years. In its usual practice of helping the vulnerable, the group staged a charity ball to raise money for children battling cerebral palsy at the Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care and Treatment Home in Yaba, EVELYN OSAGIE writes
IT was an evening of cocktails and charity at the residence of the British Deputy High Commissioner to raise funds for vulnerable Nigerian children and communities, especially for those at the Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care and Treatment Home in Yaba, Lagos.
The event was organised by the British Women Group, which has been in Nigeria for decades. It has over the years, brought people together, not only to enjoy themselves but also raise funds, with the aim of touching the lives of children.
It was a night of intrigues. The British masquerade ball was laced with fun and games, champagne, networking and fundraising for the charity.
From the moment the disguised guests arrived at the venue in glittering masks, they were welcomed by cocktails as a saxophonist, Victor Audu, serenaded them in the background.
A young creative group, Footprints of David, later took to the right wing of the entrance to render rhythmic tunes and performances, even as the hosts led guests on a journey around the world.
It was a unique masquerade balls featuring dancing and singing of Nigerian traditional folk songs. The event brought to the fore the essence of Nigeria’s rich culture and heritage.
British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Harriet Thompson said: “The night is a huge enthusiasm for charity. The link between the people of Britain and the people of Nigeria is so very strong.
It’s about celebrating the British community here in Lagos, which is so strong and vibrant and a reminder to our people of links between the two countries.
But more importantly, it’s about raising as much money as we possibly can for charity. Previously, the British Women group has raised huge amounts of money for school buses, built boreholes in schools and school books.
The next project is about developing the facilities in a school in Yaba for children with cerebral palsy. Tonight, we want to get so much money as we can out of guests.
It’s about having fun and making money for children with cerebral palsy.”
Accordingto the Chairperson of the British Women Group, Sandra Bell, the group was initially a social group, but is now being involved in charity.
On the essence of the Charity Masquerade Ball, she said: “We are mainly British ladies from the commonwealth and expatriate Nigerian ladies.
We help many women and children in the Lagos area. We find a project, focus on it, spend time and money on it and try to improve children’s lives. We’ve helped an orphanage in Ajah called Sought After, run by a lady called Carol.
“We’ve spent about N3 million on Sought After providing them with mattresses in partnership with Mouka, provided a borehole for them in partnership with Guinness and Diageo.
We’ve paid the children’s education and renovated the bus. Having done quite a bit with them, we decided to move a bit to focus on the children from Makoko and Bariga by providing a borehole for them.
They literally got water three days ago for the first time. We are also focusing on, and heavily involved in specialneeds school in Yaba, Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care and Treatment Home.
We are providing them with furniture. We’ve given them borehole, electricity, and bathrooms.”
A member of the British Women Group committee and the Creative Director, Ethnikologie, Titiloye Ashamu, said: ‘‘From the very first meeting when we decided to have a ball to raise money, I got excited and instantly I had a vision of what I wanted the day to look like.
The main thing was to raise funds for our charity and make people enjoy themselves with a clear message that it is good to give back to the society. With everything coming together, and purpose achieved, comes joy.”
On his firm’s involvement in the event, another of the group’s committee member and Commercial Manager, Nigeria, Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited, Justin Bell, said: “It’s absolutely the right thing for us to be doing.
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We do business in Nigeria and have been operating for over 18 years and this is our 18th anniversary of flying between London and Lagos, but our relationship with the British Women Group started a few years ago and we’ve been delighted to be a part of it because they do some fantastic work with some really good causes in and around Lagos focusing on children, women and their needs which is something we truly believe in.
We want to give something back and the way in which we choose to do that is by supporting charities like this group.
They’ve shown us how dedicated they are to the good causes; they’ve really followed through on these causes. They do a lot of homework and make sure that the money gets spent where it’s supposed to get spent.
They follow up and make sure that whatever they invest in is invested in properly and goes to the right places. That’s something that we think they are very good at, and so we continue to work with them on fundraising.”
Giving an insight on how he also benefited from the life-changing intervention of the group, founder of Footprint of David, Seun Awobajo said: “Importantly, until the intervention of the British Women Group, we’ve battled the challenge of drinkable water all my growing years.
We walk a minimum of four kilometres to knock at the door of one of the rich men in our community for clean and drinkable water.
I was lucky to come across the group who came to our rescue by providing a gigantic borehole with a treatment plant for our community.
This borehole has saved us a lot of stress and given us a new lease of life and access to clean and drinkable water.
The kids now feel a sense of worth and assurance of a better life and future. With the water, we can start to plan for proper toilet facilities as we defecate on the water bank.
Our community is our government, and so we hope to build it through the help of well-meaning organisations like the British Women Group.”
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