No fewer than 300 widows and petty traders in Akure, Ondo State, have received cash assistance, food items and basic medications from the Emily Memorial Foundation as part of its 2026 humanitarian outreach.
The beneficiaries, drawn from six markets in Akure South Local Government Area, were supported under the foundation’s annual birthday initiative themed, “Bless Her Hands, Secure Her Future.”
The markets covered include Odopetu, Oda, Oke Aro, Oja Fufu, Ijoka and NEPA markets, with the intervention aimed at strengthening women-owned businesses and improving their economic wellbeing.
Speaking during the programme, the foundation’s founder, Hon. Adeola Rosemary Fynch, said the outreach was organised to celebrate her birthday and immortalise the humanitarian legacy of her late mother, Mrs Emily Adebayo.
She said the initiative was not merely a birthday celebration but an opportunity to support struggling women and acknowledge their contributions to sustaining families and local economies.
Fynch, who recalled her experience as a petty trader and street hawker, said her personal encounter with the challenges of small-scale trading informed her decision to extend assistance to widows and market women.
She urged the beneficiaries to channel the financial assistance into their businesses, describing the money as seed capital that could help expand their trade and improve their sources of livelihood.
The founder also disclosed that previous interventions by the foundation included food distribution to vulnerable households, learning materials for 500 pupils and scholarships for 50 children. She reaffirmed its commitment to supporting women, children and elderly persons.
She appreciated the foundation’s partners and individual donors for sustaining its humanitarian programmes, adding that although one intervention might not eradicate poverty, it could ease the hardship of beneficiaries and their families.
Dignitaries at the event included the Akure South Local Government Chairman, Hon. Gbenga Fasua; Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s Special Adviser on Special Duties, Hon. Femi Fadairo; and the APC House of Representatives candidate for Akure South/North, Hon. Omowumi Olatunji, alongside community, religious and market leaders.
