Welcome to 2022, and on behalf of the Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund, I would like to thank you for your support in the past year. Looking back, there is so much to be proud of. We recorded significant success and made progress in our key impact areas and this is due primarily to your unwavering partnership and commitment. Together, we advocated for the need for vaccines and even helped people in underserved communities secure access. We also gained measurable ground in our mission to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the youth. In this summary newsletter, we have curated a few of the highlights.
We exceeded our goal of supporting the vaccination of 1 million Nigerians by over 60 percent. In September, we embarked on our flagship campaign in partnership with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to support the vaccination of 1 million Nigerians in six states (list them) across the six geopolitical zones by 2022. As of December 2021, our efforts had successfully led to the vaccination of 1,651,278 Nigerians.
Our success in the vaccination drive could be tied to our mass advocacy efforts against vaccine hesitancy efforts in the same locales. Collaborating with the NPHCDA, we physically campaigned at key locations such as markets, churches, mosques and academic institutions. We also employed traditional and non-traditional media tools to reach a wider audience. Over 12 million people received adequate training on vaccine safety as a result.
We also partnered with the Global Citizens on the Global Citizen Live (GCLive) initiative in September 2021. This is a global campaign for vaccine equity. The NSSF emerged as one of the 20 global recipients of the GCLive grant and was one of only three recipients in Nigeria.
Working with Coronation and Bonhams UK, we executed the WeNaija Photography Campaign, a nationwide youth-centric online advocacy parley geared towards accelerating the COVID-19 recovery process. The campaign resulted in about 1 million youths conversing about ways to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. It also built the creative capacity of 400 youths, and in the coming weeks 100 others will receive financial rewards while 10 promising young men and women will commence placements in globally recognized firms.
In October, we successfully planned and executed the NSSF inaugural virtual fundraising event for HNIs/Corporates/Philanthropists themed “Lend a Hand”. The event raised over N129 million in donations as well as other in-kind pledges. The amount redeemed so far is in excess of N97 million.
None of what has been accomplished would have been possible without the support of Global Citizen (GC) and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). We are most grateful for your guidance and commitment to our mission.
We march into 2022 with an acute sense of focus and renewed vigour. If we learnt anything from 2021, it is that there is an opportunity to do so much good and transform lives on a large scale, with your continued support, we know we can do even bigger and better things this year. Together, we will enable more people to find their footing post-COVID-19 and create a future that makes us all proud.
I wish you a remarkable 2022.
Warm Regards,
Dr. Fejiro Chinye-Nwoko
General Manager
