Community Development . Education . Empowerment . Health . Research
Community Development
We promote the coming together of community members to take collective action and generate solutions to common community problems. This enhances community wellbeing – economic, social, environmental and cultural – at grassroots level. Our initiatives stem from initial actions through the efforts of our volunteers to stimulate small initiatives within small groups leading to larger initiatives that involve the broader community.
Education
We recognise that education is a human right. And, like other human rights, it cannot be taken for granted. According to UNICEF 10.5 million children in Nigeria are out of school, of which 60% are girls. This is the highest out-of-school situation in the world. Of those that attend school, only 70% complete their primary school education. We find this totally unacceptable.
Our immediate intervention is to provide assistance to public primary and secondary schools through volunteering and infrastructural development. We also offer scholarships to indigent children from primary to tertiary levels.
Empowerment
CEF embarks on initiatives designed to increase the degree of autonomy and self-determination in individuals and communities in order to enable them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. We promote self-empowerment and provide professional support for people, enabling them to overcome their sense of powerlessness and lack of influence, triggering them to recognize and use their resources.
We have seen that promoting microenterprises seems to be an important tool for empowering youths and women socially and economically. We are, therefore, ardent in providing financial and material assistance for youths and women in order that they may be able to set up micro and small businesses which will help them achieve their life goals.
Health
Over 6.9 million Nigerians need healthcare assistance while the average life expectancy is estimated at 54 years (WHO statistics). Though maternal and infant mortality rates have been steadily reducing over the years, Nigeria still experiences a high level of maternal and infant deaths with malaria being the leading cause of death among children under 5 years. Nigeria leads Africa in recording the highest cancer death rate of 80,000 persons per year with 100,000 diagnosed annually.
CEF is involved in the fight against premature deaths in Nigeria by providing financial and material support in healthcare from primary to tertiary levels.
Research
Nation-building has been defined as the constructing or structuring of national identity. How is this achieved? Alvin Powell, writing in the Harvard Gazette, says nation-building can only be achieved from within. It involves a shared sense of national identity, built on elements that tie people together — such as shared culture, language, and history — that cannot be imposed from without. The elements involve seeking for an increase in per-capita incomes, economic growth, job creation and life expectancy. A continual search for initiatives that should trigger such increases underscores the need for research.
CEF is involved in the creation of funding opportunities for research into the areas of science, technology, engineering, medicine, health, economics and other social sciences and the arts.