By Our Reporter
In commemoration of its one year of existence in the United Kingdom, the OCI Foundation has brought its activities into Europe, the third continent they operate after successfully working in Africa and Asia-Pacific.
The Foundation was founded by a Nigerian Australia based Associate professor of family medicine, alumnus of the University of Liverpool in the UK and Harvard Medical School in the USA, whose acronym, Onyebuchi Chris Ifediora forms the name of the Foundation some years ago.
The OCI Foundation’s registration which was granted by the Charity Commission for England and Wales a year ago, marked its first step on British soil and solidified the quest to expand the long term dream to promote and advance health, education, public and social welfare among the under-served and underprivileged populations around the globe.
In a speech delivered by Michelle Akwara who represented Prof. Chris Ifediora on September 27th, 2024 at the Summit held at the Leonardo Royal City Hotel, London, she averred that the success of the past 12 months prompted the motivation to build on an exciting partnership forged with Zenith Global Health, organizers of the Summit.
She stated that the Foundation’s projects align with the theme of the summit, “Use of One Health Approach in Advancing Population Health and Tackling Inequalities and Access to Healthcare”.
Michelle Akwara reiterated that the Foundation’s signature project titled, “Literary and Research Award for Medical Students (LARAMS)” uniquely designed to identify, inspire and reward young doctors-in-training and aimed to promote Literary dexterity and research skills among future generations of doctors fits nicely into this theme hence she was happy to address the esteemed gathering of like-minds.
She added that OCI Foundation took pleasure in sponsoring the project because doctors empowered through LARAMS are expected to lead the world in addressing health Inequalities and will be rolled out across all willing medical schools in the UK in the coming 18 months as the Foundation is already working with Zenith Global Health to engage the relevant authorities in the medical schools across England and Wales.
Michelle Akwara further posited that LARAMS, code named LAMS Nigeria has been in place across medical schools in Nigeria over the past 4 years, and another version being planned for medical schools in Australia and called for partnership from the Corporate and Philanthropic entities to join in this huge and game-changing project to inspire the next generation of doctors.
She asserted that this was the 3rd in the series of the Foundation’s outing within the year, having participated in the 2024 Africa Health Awards and Summit by Zenith Global Health held at the Accra International Conference Centre earlier in the year and at the Liverpool event on 9th September with donations of food and clothing materials to the homeless and other disadvantaged communities, as part of the Foundation’s efforts to advance its social public welfare.
