‘I Grew Up To Know How To Give’

Pastor Adenike Lamai works as an administrator in a multinational company where she has risen to the position of Human Resources Manager. When she is not ministering to people in her workplace, she is busy observing the same passion with her NGO, Hadassah Healing Foundation. As the foundation marked its 10th anniversary this year with a conference in Lagos penultimate Saturday, she tells
NIKE SOTADE about the journey so far.

MY mom was an addicted giver. We are just four in our family, but my house is always filled with people. I grew up to know how to give. In fact, giving is not a choice in my family, it is a tradition. On Christian and Moslem festivals, my mom must reach out to the entire neighbourhood. When we were growing up, I did not understand why she would cook and begin to give from house to house. I would say that the Almighty dropped me in a family of givers.”

This was the environment where Pastor Nike Lamai, the co-pastor at The Maker’s Church in Ojodu-Abiodun Berger, Lagos grew up and this spirit of giving has shaped her life, prompting her to establish the Hadassah Healing Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, solely for the healing and restoration of women worldwide.

Like the story of the Biblical Esther, she has been able to reach out to the unreachable and un-loveable women, to bring them out of obscurity into limelight. And as the foundation marked its 10th anniversary last month, Lamai has every reason to look back and reminisce on the activities of Hadassah Healing Foundation (HHF) till date.

She recalls how it all started: “At that time in my church, we were planning a women’s meeting tagged, ‘Wounded But Not Destroyed’. It was meant for the women in the Christian Cottage Ministry alone, but the Almighty spoke to me and what I heard was that the programme was beyond just our church and that we needed to reach out to more women. The Lord confirmed this lead through my husband and another pastor friend of ours. That was how it all started. Today, we have Hadassah Healing Foundation. It is all about giving spiritually, emotionally, physically and financially to women in need.

“The mandate of HHF is to reach out to as many women as possible, to bring them out of obscurity into limelight, from their state of rejection and dejection and make them know that there’s something special about them that the world is waiting for.

“It is about bringing out the destitute, the drug addict and every woman that feels this world is not for people like her. I’ve counselled a lot of women who feel like, ‘Pastor, you don’t understand’ and I tell them, ‘I understand because it is actually people like you that the Almighty is looking out for.’ Look at a lot of women in the Bible like Rahab, Esther and Mary Magdalene. Who would have thought that a slave girl like Esther would ever make it?”.

When asked to recall those who have benefitted from the NGO so far, she says: “Where do I start from? They are just too many. There was a woman who had been looking on the Lord for the fruit of the womb for 10 years. God has answered her prayers and given her a baby boy. Then HHF was able to empower her financially and now she has a lucrative business. We have some scholarship recipients in higher institutions.

“We have a young lady who lost her dad, a good man who left some inheritance for them to live on but her uncle sat on it. Her mother is a petty trader. She gained admission to study Engineering but the uncle refused to give her money for school. By God’s grace, we came to her rescue and today, she is in 300 Level at the Olabisi Onabanjo University.

“We have two others at the University of Lagos – one studying Psychology and the other Linguistics. We picked up women and helped them resuscitate their businesses and we’ve been able to set up some full-time housewives in business. That means a lot to me.

“One of our core values is self-esteem. I am called out to let people know that ‘you can walk tall.’ That even though you are today seated on the floor, you can find yourself sitting with kings. It depends on how you believe and what you think the Almighty can make out of you. The change starts with you, then you can light up your world”.

Lamai reveals that with the exception of one or two organisations, funding for the NGO comes mainly from herself, partners and friends. “We have people we call Friends of Hadassah Healing Foundation,” she reveals.

And with these friends, HHF lined up activities to commemorate the 10th anniversary that culminated in the conference. The pre-conference activities included a visit to Local Government Primary School, Aparadija, for the donation of stationery gift items, a visit to Ifako-Ijaye Local Government Health Centre where the foundation donated plastic chairs, bedsheets and pillow covers to support the efforts of the hospital; the Old People’s Home at Lancaster Street, Yaba and the female wing of Kirikiri Prisons, among other places.

This year’s conference titled, ‘From Glory to Glory’ took place at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos. Countries represented at the event included the Philippines, Ghana, Spain, India, South Africa, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria among others.

“One major exercise that precedes each year’s conference, which is also men-inclusive, is the community outreach to women. It is all about empowering women to be assets to themselves. So far, Hadassah has reached out to 27 communities in Lagos and Ogun states since it was established. For 2015, we reached out to 10 communities and 128 women are now beneficiaries of our empowerment programme,” Lamai revealed