Celebrating coronavirus heroes

According to the World Health Organisation, nearly 11 million people have contracted the virus while over 500,000 deaths have been recorded although Africa may still be considered as low in the ranking with 433, 819 cases so far and 10, 659 deaths. The Future Project, an initiative currently led by Adebakin Bukonla, looks set to change the narrative of the coronavirus on the African continent, as it seeks to honour those contributing positively towards defeating the virus on the continent. Gabriel Ogunjobi writes.

 

FOR fifteen straight years, Future Project has honoured many young Africans that continue to make outstanding impacts in their respective fields, such as entertainment, journalism and communication, politics, fashion etc. Some of its past honorees include Chimamanda Adichie, Tara-Fela Durotoye, Nadin Ibrahim and Timini Egbuson. Now, the Project has resolved to rise to the occasion of celebrating COVID-19 front-liners in Africa.

“From nurses, doctors, journalists, down to every single community actor making efforts at beating coronavirus across Africa, we will be cheering them with accolades this year,” Bukonla Adebakin told The Nation in an exclusive interview.

“The procedure,” she stated, would be via “online community nominations on the website: https://ift.tt/2ASIPwu. People are expected to nominate those who are specifically championing a cause towards making the world better to live during and post-COVID-19 era.”

Beyond showering of accolades on COVID-19 front-liners, an event that is billed to hold on July 12, The Future Awards Africa has also launched a go-to user-friendly website that would serve as an expansive guide to connecting different volunteer groups with the vulnerable in the society, depending on their most needed areas of intervention.

In actualising this, Adebakin revealed that they have now amassed partners across Nigeria that would enhance reaching out to people in dire needs in order to access relief materials, health kits and other relevant palliatives.

“Our pool of active volunteers and partners would help research and curate a list of bodies that are creating help to those in dire need. Every day, we receive reports and do our due diligence to ensure these organisations are truly active per state and per region.”

Over the last eight years, Adebakin rose from the lowest cadre as a graduate intern into being the third most senior staff after Adebola Williams and Chude Jideonwo, co-founders of Red Media Africa, a public relations company based in Nigeria and Ghana.

She has worked in various capacities for Rubbin Minds, Nigerian Idols and YNaija, garnering a wide range of experiences.

Aside the current award projects, Accelerate Labs, another initiative supervised by her,  has equipped over two thousand youths across the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria ‘by building socially inclined, high profit and highly competitive enterprises capable of impacting the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP).’

On the future of virtual learning for Nigerian schools in spite of the COVID-19 realities, she suggested that Nigerian education should be refocused to accommodate extra-curriculum activities that would allow young people to thrive with their skills and talents.

Adebakin ended with the cue that ‘the realities of what is impacting the world have graduated beyond what we all learned in the walls of school. As a graduate of Science Education and Technology, I am now in the communication industry creating changes because of my passion.”