One year after her appointment as the Coordinator of the Office of the First Lady and Senior Special Assistant to the Governor, Lady Helen Eno Obareki has demonstrated a resolute commitment to sustaining and advancing the humanitarian vision of her mother, Pastor Patience Umo Eno.
Since her handing over to the First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, during a condolence visit to the Governor, Pastor Umo Eno and members of the First Family, by members of the Board of Trustees and some state Coordinators of the Renewed Hope Initiative, RHI, on Friday, October 4, 2024, Lady Helen Eno Obareki has continued with the initiatives of the First Lady’s pet project, the Golden Initiative for All (GIFA).
The appointment, announced by Pastor Umo Eno, was explicitly to ensure that the cherished social welfare programmes for women, children, the elderly, and the vulnerable, handled by the office of the First Lady, would continue seamlessly.
“It’s not an easy task ahead, but I want to please beg you that I will continue to sustain the office of the First Lady, and I want to please introduce our daughter and hand her over to you. She will continue to coordinate the office of the First Lady…”, he said.
A look at the past year reveals significant milestones and measurable success under Lady Obareki’s coordination of the office of the First Lady, activities of the Renewed Hope Initiative in Akwa Ibom State, and GIFA, where she occupies the exalted office of Chairman of the Board of Trustees, daily working towards further ensuring that the strategies and programmes under its eight thematic areas – Maternal and Child Healthcare, Enhancing Literacy and Learning, Improving Environmental Health, Women Empowerment, fight against diseases, care for the elderly, care for persons living with disabilities, as well as the prevention and response to Gender-Based Violence, are carried out.
At the first anniversary of GIFA in February 2025, she catalogued the achievements of GIFA to include significant strides in the areas of education, where, in addition to the provision of school supplies to thousands of pupils and students in public schools, the GIFA Adult Education Initiative has taught men and women how to read and write, providing additional skills for them.
Additionally, the GIFA Wheels of Hope programme and strategic partnership with the Ibom Open Maternity Project have taken free health care to rural communities.
Skills acquisition has been provided for several clusters of beneficiaries – from survivors of GBV who were taught hairdressing, tailoring, gele tying / make-up, as well as the production of pastries; to the training of widows on mushroom and snail farming, under the widow’s enhancement programme, in celebration of International Widows Day. Also, men, women, and youths have been exposed to intensive agricultural training on poultry farming, fishery, snail farming, piggery, sack farming, and goat rearing.
Support for families with multiple birth children is ongoing, several empowerment programmes for women, including the Eka Iberedem Hub, which takes rural women from informal markets and guides them through the process of getting their products to the formal market, continue to impact positively on Akwa Ibom persons. More rural communities have accessed and will continue to access the solar-powered GIFA Water of Life project.
Babies and young children-Boys and girls are equally accommodated as Lady Obareki intentionally creates packages for them. From hosting a reading session with children to spending time with boys and girls on the international day, her interest in mentoring and inspiring young people is evident through the forthcoming Girls Spelling Bee 2025, not forgetting the 38 goody bags she lovingly dispatched on September 23 to hospitals, to welcome babies born on the anniversary of the creation of Akwa Ibom State.
Governor Umo Eno has consistently lauded the efforts of Lady Helen Eno Obareki, expressing pride in her ingenuity for driving the vision, ensuring that the vulnerable segment of the state continues to receive succour. National and international bodies, including the United Nations Women Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, have also commended Lady Obareki for effectively upholding her mother’s vision, particularly the thematic focus areas of GIFA, which align with the UN Women’s mission for gender equality.
Having stepped into a role borne from tragic circumstances, Lady Helen Eno Obareki’s first year as Coordinator is characterised by a mature and determined effort to translate her late mother’s compassion into measurable democratic dividends for the people of Akwa Ibom State. Her professional background in Human Resource Management and her close mentorship under the First Lady, Pastor Patience Umo Eno, appear to have provided the solid foundation necessary for her effective and impactful coordination of this vital office.