FEB EDITION 2018

THE LUXURY REPORTER
Interview
Aer a 15-minute drive, the rickety Marwa I
boarded from Ikorodu bus stop arrived at
the gate of the Bola Tinubu Millennium
Estate, Ibeshie. I decided not to drive. It was
the end of the year, vehicular movement in
and outside Lagos City centre was at the peak.
Traffic logjam was at a standstill from Ojota inward
Mile 12. But that did not deter me from getting to
the venue of the Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation
(IIF) rst Christmas ‘Baby’s Day Out’.
I never had to ask the security personnel manning
the gates if I was in the right place. e number of
women with their children in tow trooping into the
large estate said it all. e tents erected on the eld
were lled with pregnant women, women with
toddlers and babies. Despite the crowd, more
women were still coming.
“More women are still coming,” said Nse, her
publicist. “e security men were turning them
back but Ibidunni told them not to send them
back.” To our amazement the number kept
growing as the day wore on.
I took my time moving from tent-to-tent talking to
some of the pregnant women. ere stories were as
diverse as their looks. Most of them cannot afford
to do decent shopping for their unborn children.
However, IIF took them on a shopping spree with
different gis brought to the venue by the
foundation.
I moved further into the main arena, looking for the
brain behind the project, Ibidunni Ighodalo, CEO of
Elizabeth R, a top-notch events’ planning company
and wife of Ituah Ighodalo, accountant and Senior
Pastor of Trinity House. Aer moving around for a few
minutes, there she was submerged in the crowd of little
children with their hands raised for the packs of food
she was sharing.
Despite the tugging and pulling at her dress, Ighodalo
remained calm through it all. She never shouted at the
children. I could see the untold joy on her face, the
sense of satisfaction of touching many lives.
Ighodalo’s life has been one of many paradoxes. She has
turned a critical part of her life into a life-saving guard
for many families. rough the many activities of IIF,
she has brought hope, joy and laughter into many
homes. More importantly, she is truly blessed. She has
been a mother to many children who have found
succour beneath the wings of her foundation. Like the
biblical Sarah, she has birthed many stars, who are
uncountable like the sand by the seashore.
In addition to the Baby Day Out programme, her
foundation has funded IVF treatment for couples who
are hoping to have their own babies. Casting her own
care aside, Ighodalo has shouldered and keeps
shouldering the needs of other families most especially
women.
“My focus now is to help others, one at a time,” she told
is Day Newspaper in a previous interview. “I want to
make a family happy and with the help of God, their
prayers would be answered. I know the pain and what it
feels like. It will give me joy to see them jumping and
rejoicing, saying that they are expecting their own
children. I have seen it happen. I have seen the two
sides during my course of treatment. I said, God help
me, let me do this. When you focus on helping others,
you don’t know the blessings that come back to you. It
is difficult, but I said Lord you have put this in me, You
have to provide. You know when God gives you a
vision, He makes the provision. I have been amazed at
the response. It is unbelievable.”
IIF was created to raise awareness on issues pertaining
to infertility and to provide grants for couples that
require fertility treatments such as In Vitro
Fertilization (IVF) and Intrauterine Insemination.
e foundation partners with highly reputable fertility
clinics in Nigeria and with other donors to provide
couples with the nancial and material support they
require during the treatments. It also provides the
necessary psychological and spiritual support they
require to deal with the pressures they face along their
journey to conception.
A graduate of Microbiology from the University of
Lagos (UNILAG), Ighodalo has used the platform of
IIF to award grants for fertility treatment such as In
Vitro Fertilization (IVF), Frozen Embryo Transfer and
Intrauterine Insemination.
When the foundation was launched two years ago, her
plan was to help one or two couples who were in need
but the number of applications she received would
alter the course of the foundation positively. e plan
was changed to accommodate 28 couples.
“ere are some couples that have applied that have
been married for between 20 and 25 years and when I
read their history, they have come to a point where they
are tired. I even found out that it was their family that
applied for some of them. A lot of people have asked me
why I don’t face my life, why I am trying to be Mother
eresa. What is it? Is it that you have so much money
you don’t know what to do with it? I can’t even explain
it,” she explains.
Sharing her personal story on the IIF website, she
recalled how as a newly married couple, she and her
husband, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, looked forward to
starting their family and holding their children in their
arms. To their dismay, aer getting married 11 years
ago, they watched the years roll by without a child of
their own.
“Aer several doctors’ appointments,” she wrote in the
post, “we were told that we wouldn’t have children
unless we sought treatment through assisted
reproduction. is was the doctor’s report we received,
but we choose to believe God’s own report, unshaken
in our faith as we rmly believe that that we will have
our children. is period of delay also came with
pressure and a lot of insensitivity from people to our
situation. I also had to deal with the emotions, pain and
the roller-coaster hormonal imbalance that comes
with all sorts of treatments. ankfully, I am married to
an amazing man who has been there for me through all
the procedures; un inching in his support.”
She later made up her mind to stop worrying over
childbearing and to just keep trusting God while
helping other couples through their own fertility
journey. “As I prayed and mulled over the idea, I felt
peace and that was how the IIF was born.” Since then,
she hasn’t looked back.
Ighodalo is not new to charity. She has been a great
supporter of Heritage Homes, a motherless babies’
home. She is equally involved in Lydia Grace, a
foundation for socially challenged women. Also, she
offers support to her brother’s charity, Biire
Foundation, an NGO that caters to malnourished
children, women and People living with HIV.
With her involvement in charity, Ighodalo is sure
pushing boundaries and making positive impacts on
many lives.
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