U.S. CDC, NextGenU, Others Endorse OCI Foundation’s ‘Arm Our Youths’ Campaign

The Arm Our Youths Health Campaign (ArOY Campaign), an initiative of the Onyebuchi Chris Ifediora (OCI) Foundation, has received international endorsements from the United States’ Centers for Disease Control (CDC), NextGenU.org and the Universities of British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

The institutions pledged support for the initiative which aims to introduce breast and cervical cancer preventive campaigns into the academic curricula of all secondary schools across Nigeria.

Disclosing this in a letter to OCI Foundation’s founder, Professor Chris Ifediora, the founder of NextGenU.org, Professor Erica Frank, said the aforementioned institutions had pledged to support the foundation to roll out the ArOY Campaign across Nigeria.

“It is with the strongest possible endorsement in my capacity as UBC Professor and Canada Research Chair in Preventive Medicine and Population Health, and as the Founder/Inventor of NextGenU.org that I write in support of the Onyebuchi Chris Ifediora (OCI Foundation),” said Frank.

Frank, who is the Canada Research Chair in Preventive Medicine and Population Health the University of British Columbia, added that, “This partnership includes support from the extraordinary team assembled by Drs. Ifediora (Founder of the OCI Foundation) and Mutwiri (University of Saskatchewan), as well as the U.S. CDC, with which NextGenU.org has an extensive collaboration, where they have been developing and disseminating cervical cancer prevention education”.

She said, “We are keen to further develop and study the effects of these resources and expertise in partnership with the OCI Foundation, and believe these initiatives to be essential and novel, with the potential to create significant impacts in the lives of young people and their communities globally”.

Meanwhile, Ifediora, in a statement on Friday, described the ArOY Campaign as an innovative and evidence-based health promotion program that was conceived by the OCI Foundation.

He said the initiative had already received the endorsements of experts from the Harvard Medical School (USA), the WHO Nigeria, and the Griffith University (Australia).

According to Ifediora, the foundation had set the year 2025 as deadline to introduce the campaign to all the senior secondary schools in Nigeria.

He said the campaign had been, “successfully introduced across all the 261 eligible schools in Anambra State, and are in advanced talks to do the same in Benue State and with the NYSC, before the COVID-19 lockdown took effect across the world.

“A number of other reputable Nigerian institutions partnering the OCI Foundation on this initiative include the Innoson Group, the NYSC (National Office), the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs (Nigeria), Nollywood Nigeria, the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS), Silk Road Restaurant (Abuja), and the Post Primary Schools Service Commission, PPSSC (Anambra State), among others.

“The OCI Foundation is in a nationwide consultation with major stakeholders in Health, Education and other institutions across Nigeria, in efforts to expand its partners, ahead of a massive launch of the ArOY Campaign as soon as the COVID-19 lockdowns are eased,” he added.