Alaere Alaibe was a
woman whose legacy speaks volumes. To her people in the Niger Delta
area, her commitment to poverty eradication and enhancing the standard
of living of her people, especially women, is still being celebrated. Five years on, women who found succour in Alaere’s humanitarian works are still grieving. Oftentimes, their discussions are woven around her zeal for human development and how much she touched their lives. Meanwhile, the pains have persisted and the women cannot be stopped from bemoaning the loss of the woman who lived for them.
Making a difference
These women realised that Alaere came to liberate them. It didn’t take them time to embrace the fact that their lives and those of their children depended on three major pillars of development: education, good health and nutrition.
Alaere hinged her efforts on this tripod and stretched herself to bring succour to women in the Niger Delta. She spread freedom to women in the area with her FREE foundation. Such was the impact of her vision that some groups that sprouted out of her benevolence vowed never to give up.
For instance, the farmers’ cooperatives in Kaiama and Olobiri in Kolokuma Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State are still marching on. Through their doggedness, the 15 hectares of cassava farm in Kaiama have received grants and assistance from FADAMA, the Bayelsa State agriculture ministry and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). They now have a garri-processing factory; and have also diversified into other areas of farming. They have consistently, for the past five years, held an annual end-of-year gathering in memory of their benefactor, Alaere.
Adult education
Alaere is continuously remembered for the impact she made on their lives through education. Everyday, women re enrolled in evening classes in remembrance of the woman who sought to bring light to women by educating them. Alaere even opened one of the functional libraries in the heart of the Niger Delta. Even though not fully patronized by the targeted audience, the message was strongly and aptly delivered by Nigeria’s Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka. During the opening ceremony, Soyinka had declared that the Niger Delta was gearing up for intellectual challenge now that armed struggle is over. Alaere’s legacy needs the best of brains to turn around the centre for strategic development in the Niger Delta.
The hospital
From her home, Igbain Wari, Alaere constructed a hospital to cater for the health needs of her people. The hospital still offer medical services to all and provides employment for the unemployed. Like the library, the hospital can be transformed into a Women and Children referral hospital of international standard where the best medical professionals assemble for service to humanity.
On her health programmes which she got through partnership with the United Kingdom-based Support for Africa Foundation, the Alaere Alaibe Health Foundation was built in 2006 to provide affordable health care in the area of reproductive health. This initiative was premised on the belief that a healthy family will be useful to the development of the society. The health centre has a resident doctor and provides comprehensive healthcare services ranging from malaria, pelvic inflammatory disease, peptic ulcer, hypertension, respiratory tract infections, ante-natal and natal care, among others. A total of 22 babies have been successfully delivered at the health facility while over 500 patients have been treated since its inception in October 2006.
Her life
Alaere, a mother of five and native of Trofan village in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, was born in Lagos in 1964. She attended the University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Banking and Finance; and a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA). Between 1988 and 1990, she worked as Accountant with Elektrint Nigeria Limited, Lagos and later Ashland Oil Company, Port Harcourt. In 1994, she set up Pretty Woman Nigeria Limited, a health and beauty company with the objective of redefining the beauty of the Nigerian woman
Her philosophy
In 2000, Alaere initiated the Family Re-orientation, Education and Empowerment (FREE) to help the women of the Niger Delta region to resolve the development dilemmas confronting them; and to help them become literate and empowered.
In 2005, FREE was officially registered as a non-profit organization with emphasis on women and the girl-child. Today, FREE is a member of the Non-Governmental Association for Literacy Support Services with the mandate to reduce the high levels of ignorance, alphabet literacy, collapse of family values and general underdevelopment in the Niger Delta.
The catch line of FREE is “Educate the woman, Free the Family. Its vision is: Emancipation through Knowledge” with the mission: To re-orientate, educate and empower the family, and bring back real values of hard work, honesty, morality and enterprise through education, counseling and skills acquisition programmes with special attention to the womenfolk.
At a global conference on non-violence and peace in Abuja on December 2007, it was discovered that FREE had established functional 28 study centres across six states of the Niger Delta, re-orientating a large pool of women, young girls and boys in the region. Women who had never been to school are being taught to read and write, while young ladies who have been out of school either because of lack of means or unplanned pregnancy are offered a second chance to study and be re-absorbed into formal schools. The programme has over 5000 women as adult learners.
Recognition
In 2007, FREE became the first Nigerian NGO to be awarded the prestigious Confucius Literacy Award by UNESCO. The award ceremony took place at Bamako Hall in Mali. This was what the late Alaere said while receiving the award:
“FREE speaks of freedom from ignorance. This is by far the greatest danger that faces the world today. I believe ignorance is a greater terror, because it impoverishes the mind, spirit and makes the ignorant willing tools in the hands of profiteers. If the world would together, if the world would spend a fraction of what it has spent and what it has lost in the past decade, fight ignorance and improve the living conditions of the people, I believe significant steps would have been taken to rid the world of destruction, hatred, strife and terror. Ignorance remains the most potent weapon and an impediment to sustainable development, and no development can help the people, if they do not understand what it offers. FREE speaks of freedom from poverty and disease. It also speaks of our collective capacity as human beings to uplift one another. It speaks of our faith in ourselves as human beings, and hope in our fellow man.”
It has been five years she departed, but her mission to liberate humanity from poverty and ignorance remains.