Today, we mark @UNICEF Foundation Day and reflect on the 1946 resolution of the @UnitedNations General Assembly that established the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund through Resolution 57(I). Formed in the aftermath of World War II to deliver emergency assistance to children experiencing profound hardship, UNICEF established a global standard for the protection of child rights and for the international community’s collective responsibility to safeguard the wellbeing and future of every child.

Nearly eight decades later, UNICEF remains a central actor in the international development landscape, carrying forward a mandate that advances child survival, protection, learning, and equitable access to essential services, and that continues to inform national systems strengthening, shape humanitarian response, and guide long term investments in resilient and accountable institutions that support children and families in every setting.

At the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, our mission aligns with these principles as we strengthen the earliest foundations of child health through respectful maternity and newborn care, midwifery and nursing capacity development, community health literacy, #WASH implementation, and integrated emergency readiness across Nigeria, recognising that equitable outcomes are built through sustained support throughout the most formative stages of life.

On this UNICEF Foundation Day, we recognise the organisation’s enduring leadership in championing child rights and global equity, and we continue to stand with partners across the development community to advance a future in which every child is protected, empowered, and able to realise their full potential wherever they are born.

📸: UNICEF Global Headquarters, #UNGA80 September 2025

#UNICEFFoundationDay
#ForEveryChild
#WellbeingForAll ...

I was honoured to be invited by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine @LSTMNews as its newly appointed Chancellor, the internationally acclaimed humanitarian leader Elhadj As Sy, delivered his first public lecture in office yesterday, Working in Humanitarian Settings: Health as a Damage; Health as a Response. Joining virtually, I appreciated the depth and clarity of his reflections, which speak directly to the realities confronting global health and humanitarian action today.

Chancellor Elhadj As Sy’s record of service across international development and global health, including his leadership as Chair of the @KofiAnnanFoundation Board and as former Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies @ICRC, alongside senior roles with @UNICEF, @UNAIDSGlobal, the @GlobalFund and the @UnitedNations, reflects a distinguished and deeply principled commitment to the most disadvantaged and hardest-to-reach communities. His inaugural lecture offered a thoughtful and compelling perspective on the evolving responsibilities of the international health and development community.

The @WellbeingAfrica Foundation has long valued its collaboration with #LSTM, particularly in strengthening maternal, newborn and child health systems across Nigeria. Chancellor As Sy’s appointment further reinforces the shared vision that underpins this partnership and the institution’s role in shaping global discourse and outcomes.

In this same spirit of academic excellence and global impact, I am delighted to celebrate the achievements highlighted at LSTM’s 2025 Graduation Ceremony yesterday, as we at #WBFA extend heartfelt congratulations to Dr Hauwa Ibrahim @hawii71 on the award of her PhD in Global Health, while also commending Dr Nduku Kilonzo on receiving an honorary degree that reflects her decades of influential leadership.

I warmly applaud Chancellor Elhadj As Sy on his appointment and commend LSTM for convening such an insightful lecture to mark a significant moment in their 125-year history, and I offer my congratulations to the entire graduating Class of 2025 as they begin their next chapter of contribution.

#WellbeingForAll ...

3 Days to Go! 📣📣📣

I am honoured to stand with my dear sister, Dr. Kemi DaSilva-Ibru @kdsibru, the visionary Founder of @WARIF_NG, as we at the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation join the global community for the 7th Annual WARIF No Tolerance March during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

Through WARIF’s tireless work in providing urgent medical care, counselling, legal support, prevention initiatives, and community education, countless women and girls have found safety, healing, and hope. Today, more than ever, we must amplify this mission.

📍 LAGOS MARCH DETAILS
Date: Saturday, December 06, 2025
Time: 7:30 AM
Route: Ikoyi–Lekki Link Bridge
Muster Point: Access Bank Parking Lot,
Block 36, Plot 1, Admiralty Way,
Lekki Phase 1, Victoria Island, Lagos

This year, the march goes global in 17 cities, including Accra, Nairobi, London, Paris, New York, and Washington DC, reminding us that ending gender-based violence is a universal imperative.

#EndGBV
#16DaysOfActivism
#WellbeingForAll ...

Each year, @GivingTuesday invites the world to reclaim generosity as a collective act of hope. What began as a simple call to do good has grown into a global movement that encourages every person, everywhere, to give what they can, in whatever way they can, to strengthen healthier and more compassionate communities. It reminds us that when we give, we do more than offer assistance; we lift one another, and we honour our shared humanity.

This year, as I reflect on the meaning of #GivingTuesday, I am reminded of a mother in Kwara State whose story carries the true spirit of this day. When Mrs Akewushola Fatimoh delivered premature twins while caring for four other children and managing significant health challenges, her joy was shadowed by worry over rising medical bills and the cost of specialised medical supplies her babies urgently needed. Through our #AlaafiaKwara Initiative at the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, our team stepped in with a ₦500,000 package to clear her hospital charges and secure essential newborn supplies, while providing dedicated lactation and newborn care guidance through our MamaCare360 midwives, offered freely as part of our WBFA commitment to equitable care. Her relief, her resilience and her gratitude reflect exactly why this day matters.

At the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, generosity is not an annual gesture; it is the foundation of our work. From the daily education of our MamaCare360 midwives to the compassionate protections of the Alaafia Kwara Initiative, we see every day how even a single act of support can transform the life of a mother, a newborn and an entire family. Giving Tuesday affirms this truth on a global scale by inviting each of us to take part in nurturing the health and wellbeing of women, newborns and families, whether through time, voice, kindness or resources.

Together we give. Together we share. Together we build a future where every mother and every child can thrive.

#CommittedToCaring 
#TogetherWeGive
#WellbeingForAll ...

Yesterday in Lagos, Bukola and I conveyed our heartfelt condolences to the family of our dearly departed friend and brother, Segun Awolowo.

As the funeral obsequies commence today, we continue to offer our prayers to Almighty God to comfort his mother, his wife Bola, his children, and the entire Awolowo family, granting them strength as they bear this profound loss. Amen. ...

As @UNWomen 16 Days of Activism progresses, it is important to acknowledge both the growing risks and the emerging protections within our digital environments. For many women and girls, online spaces have become sites of profound vulnerability. Cyberstalking, coordinated harassment, image-based abuse and manipulative forms of coercive control continue to mirror and intensify the violence experienced offline. These violations produce lasting psychological, social and developmental consequences that cannot be dismissed as virtual or immaterial.

At the same time, we are witnessing encouraging examples of technology being used to strengthen safety. Survivor-informed tools such as the Sophia platform in Switzerland are providing confidential guidance, evidence storage and pathways to local support. Coded communication practices, including the internationally recognised request to “order a pizza”, allow individuals in danger to alert responders without escalating risk. Digital helplines accessible through WhatsApp or discreet chat functions are extending protection to those who cannot safely reach formal services. Educational programmes that build digital literacy and help adolescents recognise online grooming or manipulation are equipping young people with critical skills for safe navigation.

These innovations show that technology can contribute meaningfully to prevention and protection when governed ethically and designed with survivor insight. They also reveal the urgent need for stronger accountability from digital platforms, consistent enforcement of safety standards and legislation that recognises digital violence as a serious human rights and public health concern.

The @WellbeingAfrica Foundation remains committed to supporting policies, programmes and partnerships that strengthen both the safeguards and the responsibilities that shape digital life. As this year’s 16 Days continue, I encourage all institutions to invest in technologies that protect while also confronting the systems, behaviours and regulatory gaps that allow digital harm to persist.

#16Days 
#NoExcuse
#WellbeingForAll
#FrontlineFriday ...

Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating today.

As families gather around tables across the world, giving thanks for the nourishment that sustains us, my thoughts turn to the mothers, newborns, and midwives whose daily work reminds us that nutrition is the foundation for life, dignity, and healthy futures.

This #Thanksgiving and #ThriveThursday, I am deeply grateful for the care I see every day through our @WellbeingAfrica Foundation #MamaCare360 and #NICUPlus programming. From antenatal nutrition counselling to lactation support, our midwives guide mothers through the essential first steps of nourishing both themselves and their babies. Their work ensures that even the smallest and most fragile newborns receive the protection, immunity, and development gains that only early nutrition and breastfeeding can provide.

Breastmilk remains the most powerful food a baby can receive, offering complete immunity, optimal nutrition, and healthy growth. In our NICU Plus settings, where newborns often face their first challenges in life, every drop becomes part of a baby’s pathway to survival and strength. I am thankful for the mothers who persevere through these delicate moments, and for the midwives whose compassion and expertise help them sustain this vital connection.

Today, I give thanks for every family striving to give their child the healthiest beginning, for every midwife whose hands and heart guide that journey, and for every partner committed to advancing maternal and newborn wellbeing.

May this season of gratitude bring comfort, peace, and renewed strength to all families, and may every mother and newborn continue to thrive.

#WellbeingForAll ...

I welcome with profound relief the reported rescue and safe return of the Christian worshippers abducted in Eruku, Kwara State, as well as the schoolgirls taken from Kebbi State. I commend the swiftly dedicated efforts of our national security services, working with their subnational counterparts and state government executives, in making these rescue and return outcomes possible.

As we give thanks for their freedom, my thoughts remain with each survivor. In the spirit of @UnitedNations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, our response must now be truly survivor-centred. Their recovery must be supported with compassionate, sustained care, including access to psychosocial counselling and confidential medical screening, alongside community protection that guards against stigma and restores dignity.

I am deeply encouraged by the Inspector General of Police’s deployment to increase vigilance and presence in Eruku following the latest reported insecurity incident, a timely and heartening reminder that community vigilance remains essential to strengthening safety across our nation. Local early-warning systems, trusted reporting channels, and close collaboration among communities, traditional and faith leaders, civil society, and security agencies remain vital to preventing further attacks on schools, places of worship, and public spaces.

While we celebrate these returns, and continue to hope and advocate for the safe recovery of all who remain missing in other states, including those still unaccounted for in Niger State, we must ensure community vigilance and survivor-centred care.

May the #16DaysofActivism against Gender-Based Violence remind us of our shared responsibility to protect every Nigerian life, and to uphold the dignity, security and wellbeing of all, especially women, girls and the most vulnerable in our communities.

📸: #IWD2022 @USInNigeria

#EndGBV
#WPS1325
@WellbeingAfrica
#WellbeingForAll ...

Today, on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as I mark the start of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, I am joining the global community in advancing the urgent call to end all forms of violence against women and girls, including the rapidly growing threat of technology-facilitated abuse, aligned with this year’s @UNWomen theme that digital violence is real violence, and that there is #NoExcuse for online abuse.

Digital platforms should offer connection, learning, and opportunity, yet instead, for millions of women and girls, they have become spaces of harassment, coercion, surveillance, manipulation, and intimidation. Up to 58% of women worldwide report experiencing online violence, and up to 95% of deepfake sexual images target women. These harms, rooted in gender inequality and amplified by digital tools and artificial intelligence, have profound real-world consequences for safety, participation, democracy, and rights.

At the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, our Adolescent Skills and Drills Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene PSHE WASH Programme, which includes our Computerised Skills Labs, equips young people with digital literacy, autonomy, and the ability to recognise, resist, and challenge abusive behaviours early. Empowering girls and engaging boys as allies remain central to prevention, to building digital resilience, and to creating safer online and offline environments.

Throughout these 16 days, I urge governments, technology companies, and multilateral partners to strengthen legal protections, hold perpetrators accountable, and invest in survivor-centred services. Ending violence, whether physical, psychological, or digitally mediated, is essential to achieving sustainable development and safeguarding fundamental human rights.

There is No Excuse for Online Abuse, and we must reclaim digital spaces as places where every woman and girl can learn, speak, lead, and thrive free from fear. I call on all partners to UNiTE to end digital violence against all women and girls everywhere.

#16DaysOfActivism
#StopDigitalViolence
#WellbeingForAll ...

#DYK Did you know that one third of boys think women’s rights do not matter. The question is, who taught them that?

I recently came across a study from the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership and Ipsos UK, The State of Gender Equality: Attitudes Among Boys and Young Men (2024) @GIWLKings @Ipsos_In_The_UK, which found that many teenage boys in the United Kingdom now believe women’s rights have “gone far enough”, and a growing number feel that feminism has “gone too far”. Similar findings have been echoed in school-based research across the country, signalling a shift in boys’ attitudes toward equality that deserves urgent attention.

If equality is perceived with suspicion, it suggests that the principles of respect, fairness, and shared dignity are not being properly understood, communicated, or consistently taught. Women’s rights are foundational to the wellbeing and future of families, communities, and societies. When boys do not recognise this, the environment shaping them requires closer examination.

It is easy to focus solely on blaming the internet, and yes, online spaces play a powerful role in shaping attitudes toward women and power. Yet this issue runs deeper. Boys learn from what they observe at home, from what is normalised in classrooms, from peer behaviour, and from the wider culture that quietly forms their understanding of the world.

Not all violence leaves a physical mark. Emotional abuse, digital humiliation and threats, coercive behaviour, and sustained control can erode self-worth and mental health in ways that are often overlooked or dismissed.

The @WellbeingAfrica Foundation @WBWVoices Youth Mentorship Initiative affirms the @WHO_Africa @WHO perspective that recognising the signs, strengthening the evidence base, supporting survivors, and speaking with clarity are essential steps forward. It is never “just words”. There is no justification for violence in any form. Ending the silence is how we begin to safeguard emotional and mental wellbeing for every woman, girl, child, and every family.

#MaternalMonday
@HearHerStories
#TeachRespect 
#EqualityForAll 
#WellbeingForAll ...