Dike Onwuamaeze
The Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation (IIF), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) has announced the third cycle of its Project 40at40 in furtherance of its annual In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) grant.
This announcement was made at a press conference held in Lagos, yesterday.
The Project 40at40 was born upon the demise of the Late Mrs. Ibidunni Olajumoke Ituah-Ighodalo whose birthday wish was to give 40 couples, 40 IVF grants on her 40th birthday.
Ibidunni Ighodalo foundation was founded in 2016, as an initiative founded to support waiting couples especially with regard to easing the financial burden that comes with pursuing fertility treatments that could give them a chance at fulfilling their dreams of parenthood.
The Ibidunni Ighodalo foundation (IIF) grant was set up to ensure that those dreams become a reality through giving couples-in-waiting the chance to become parents by assisted reproduction, IVF and other fertility treatments. This initiative is a posthumous realisation of the founder’s wish with her husband, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo championing the cause to ensure that his late wife’s dream is fulfilled. The project, in its third year, customarily commences on Ibidunni’s posthumous birthday anniversary on July 19, 2022.
The foundation, in collaboration with renowned fertility medical partners have administered IVF treatments to 80 recipients since inception.
Beneficiaries of the first and second cycle resulted in 10 babies thus far with many others currently undergoing their gestation period.
Speaking at the media briefing, the Chairman of the foundation, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, while sharing the success stories said: “We are glad to announce that for the maiden cycle in 2020, we had 9 new births, including a set of triplets. For the year 2021, we have a baby already, nine pregnancies while four are still undergoing treatment.”
For him, being able to help people, support and give them hope was the driving force of the initiative.
He announced the foundation’s new initiatives ‘Ibidunni Life Store’ and ‘Ibidunni Ighodalo Entrepreneurial Network’, a mentoring and digital learning platform for the young to inspire, engage and equip aspiring entrepreneurs on self-leadership, entrepreneurship, and the benefits of creating wealth the right way.
On her part, the Executive Secretary of the foundation, Grace Ogunniyi while speaking about the registration confirmed that the portal would be open on July 19.
She also made a clarion call for support.
“We are hoping to have more babies from the 2021 set and for this new cycle, we’ll like people to also partner with us financially and we are grateful to those who have supported us so far,” she added.
The foundation is totally committed to keeping hope alive and helping struggling families ease their way into parenthood.
The official website of the foundation is open to applications for couples.
