S
easoned Nollywood actress, Foluke Daramola-Salako, has floated a social welfare intervention scheme meant to intervene in the harsh situations some of the aged and generational Nollywood actors are passing through in their private lives.
According to the beautiful thespian, she is close to some of these actors and is aware of the hard times they are going through at the moment, which she believes need the urgent intervention of well meaning Nigerians.
“Some of these actors have put in so much over the years in the growth, progress and development of the entertainment industry in Nigeria, so, they do not deserve to be neglected, forgotten or left alone to continue in hardship and pains.
Foluke revealed that she is moved to emotions when some of her old and poor colleagues call her on phone to ask for monetary assistance, a ridiculous amount she said, under normal circumstances, they should be able to afford.
”That is why I decided to set up a platform in the form of a pension scheme to help them have access to monthly stipends through my NGO.
I am also in the industry and I expected to become a veteran in the future.
So, I am taking it upon myself to use the platform of my NGO to help build mutual trust funds to alleviate their sufferings and intervene in their failing health. We are in a make belief industry where people think because we are celebrities and all is well with us. But we live in a country where hardship hits many people so hard and Nollywood celebrities in Nigeria are not excluded,” notes the star actress who said she had come up with this initiative to sensitize the world about the fact and reality of the situations of the Nollywood poor and sick veterans, and to draw the attention of Nigerians to the fact that they need to care.
”Over the years, we have come on social media platforms to beg for the financial interventions from Nigerians when some of us have critical health and economic challenges. But for how long can we continue to constitute social nuisance in this regard? For how long will this continue? So, with this initiative, I am undertaking for the economically vulnerable, aged and forgotten ones in our midst and I am optimistic that it would go a long way to arresting, alleviating and reducing the ugly situation,” she submitted.
We gathered that the scheme is an initiative to consistently raise funds into a mutual benefit assurance pool which will be run in collaboration with credible insurance and pension organisations. The partners will be involved in the running of the scheme that would then help to take care of the health situations of the veterans and also assist to provide money for them to survive optimally on monthly basis.
On Friday, November, 29, 2019s a gala event will be hosted at Anchor Events Centre in Ikeja, Lagos, where the veterans who are the target of the scheme would be brought together for celebration, honour and also the date would signal the formal launch of the project.
Those expected to grace the occasion include Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; his wife, the distinguished Senator Oluremi Tinubu; the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide SanwoOlu; the speaker of the Lagos house of assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa; wives of governors in the South West; Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi; Iya Aladura Esther Ajayi; Barrister Taiwo Afolabi; Chief (Mrs.) Remi Adiukwu-Bakare and many other notable Nigerians.
