With Anave Nicolette Ndigwe, Nweke, Suleiman fight malaria

All is now set for the release of Anave, a movie on the malaria scourge in Nigeria.

Written, produced and directed by Nicolette Ndigwe, with the Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, and former Minister of Information and Communications, Frank Nweke Jnr., as executive producers, Anave aims at creating awareness on the plight of the less privileged Nigerian children suffering from malaria.

Speaking at a media briefing to unveil the movie, Ndigwe said, “Anave tells the story of an eight-year-old boy whose mother dies from malaria complications at childbirth, leaving him at the mercy of an orphanage. He ends up on the street in a quest for an education where he faces the struggles of the vulnerable poor and homeless.”

According to her, the film features celebrities such as, Omawunmi Megbele, Aituaje Iruobe, popularly known as Waje, Shawn Faqua, Seun Ajayi, Rita Edwards and acclaimed cinematographer and Adekunle ‘Nodash’ Adejuyigbe.

The movie premiered before a select audience at fund-raising events in Lagos on April 25, 2019. It would be followed by a series of screenings to larger audiences across Nigeria, including educational institutions, as part of a plan that not only aims at sensitising the public about the issue.

According to Ndigwe: “The project’s overall strategic focus takes cognisance of five United Nations  (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and recognising the potential of film in impacting the minds of people, Anave became the best tool to pass this message.”

She said it is an advocacy project, which seeks to reduce the gruesome rates of maternal and child mortality attributable to preventable causes like malaria, homelessness, hunger and opportunistic diseases in Nigeria.”

Ndigwe continued, “the dream was fueled by the statistics which showed that malaria is responsible for the death of an average of 300,000 children and 11 per cent of all maternal deaths each year in Nigeria.”

She noted that data obtained from UNICEF further indicated that each month, “Nigeria loses about 2,300 under five-year-olds and 145 women of child bearing age, making it the second largest contributor to under five and maternal mortality rates in the world.”

What Ndigwe finds most hurtful is that about 75 per cent of these deaths are highly preventable.