Selfless giving comes natural to me – Lion Badmos Adekemi
Armed with her experience in the banking industry and core belief in innovation and creativity, Lion Adekemi Badmos, can convincingly talk about how to give back to the society as individual, team and government. In a bid to give selflessly, Lagos Marvel Lions club president, in this interview, with the publisher, Brandmatters Magazine, BLESSING UMEBALI, narrates the impact of her club and school in her community.
What inspired you to join the Lions Club, and how do you balance your responsibilities as Charter president with your role as a school proprietress?
I am a natural giver who loves to help and impact any community I find myself.
I was inspired by one of my former senior collegues in the banking industry then; that is Lion Caroline Adediran who is a member of the Ikeja Golden Lions Club. She invited and motivated me to join the Lions Club. And for the fact that Lions Club requires your time, talent and treasure, these encompasses ‘giving’ , which is what I love to do. Giving selflessly.
Can you share your strategy for effectively carrying out community service activities within the Club, during your tenure as the charter president?
This has to do with leadership, having competent people working with you like the club officers & members which results in working as a team. Communicating our club vision to members and ensuring feedback.
As the Charter President of the Lagos Marvel Lions Club, one of the strategies I used is to first of all do a needs assessment, to find out the needs of the people in the community.
We chose General Hospital , Gbagada for my core project because I know that health care is one of the area that the government needs support in meeting the needs of the people in the community. We were able to target our audience and the people that can support the project. We were able to meet our target during my investiture ceremony.
What motivated you to initiate the Hospital Core Project ,with focus on wellness, and what impact do you hope it will have on the community?
I so much believe that health is wealth. And like I said earlier that the government needs a lot of support in terms of Health Care Services for the people in the local community; and because they can not do it alone, this brought about the Wellness Project. And this particular wellness project was targetted at the women & children in the community. It is a project that would impact on the larger community. Also our second core project, is the donation of Slit lamp to same hospital.
Could you discuss the leadership styles you’ve implemented over the past nine months that have contributed to maintaining cohesion within the club?
For my leadership style, it is more of democratic leadership which allows everybody to have a voice and engaging them actively. One of our core values is integrity; keeping to our words. Starting the club, we made our vision clear to the members and we ensure that we follow it. We are delibrate about what we do.
I believe in innovation and creativity which have really helped to project the club in many areas. We work with our vision, mission and purpose. We do a lot of trainings and self-awareness workshops. We are empathetic but courageous ; you know as a Lion, you have to be courageous even in the face of challenges, we just have to keep going on.
Given the current hardships facing Nigeria, what advice would you offer to the country’s president to address issues such as hunger and economic challenges?
My advice to the President is to make our country to be a producing nation. We need to go back to industrialization. Provide an enabling environment where things work (electricity, availability of reasonable financing for business owners).We rely too much on importing rather than leveraging on our country’s resources, production of our own local goods that would lead to job creation, improved food industries and enabling environment for all.
In light of the prevailing hunger in the country, how is your Club, Lagos Marvel Lions Club collaborating with the government to alleviate poverty and support those in need?
As Lions, hunger eradication is one of our key roles, under the hunger relief cause. We give food stuff to people in the community, especially the less privileged. We also give parliatives to people in our local community. Also some Lions clubs in Nigeria create farming opportunities by investing in agriculture.
What inspired you to establish and run your own school, and what are some of the challenges you’ve faced in the process?
I was inspired to establish a school after I had my first child. I desired a home away from home environment for her and other children where they would be happy when they come to school. A School that will encourage children to develop personal values and thinking processes that will facilitate their intelligent adaptability to a changing society and world.
The challenges I faced when I started were human capital, finance and the unstable economy. Though, I was able to over come the challenges as a Lion as my school is 17years old .
How do you ensure the quality of education and overall well-being of students within your school environment?
We ensure good quality of education by recruiting qualified and well experienced staff. We organise trainings and workshops for effective teaching, learning and school management. We are keen at monitoring and supervision, we make sure the children get quality education and we do not joke with the duty of care, the student’s well-being is paramount to us. We set excellent standard for teaching and learning.
In what ways do you engage with the local community and contribute to educational development beyond your school premises?
We engaged with local community and contribute to educational development beyond our school premises by organising programmes like Literacy day, competitions where we share books, water bottles,school bags and stationeries to help the less privileged. I give scholarships to students up to university level and also give funds to parents to support their children’s education.
Regarding the theme of International Women’s Day. Can you share your perspective on this year’s International Women’s Day theme and how it relates to your experiences as a female entrepreneur and educator in Nigeria?
My perspective on this year’s International Women’s Day theme: Count Her In: Accelerating Gender Equality Through Economic Empowerment’ is to work towards achieving gender equality and women’s well-being in all aspects of life. This is more crucial than ever if we want to create prosperous economy and a healthy planet. We need to shift to a caring society and to amplify women’s voices. The current economic system disproportionately affects women in business and education. This is a call to unite,to transform challenges into opportunities and shape a better future for all.
Finally could you describe yourself with the word, “WOMAN “?
I am Wonderful, Outstanding Organiser, Multitalented, Adorable and Nice.
