Mothers of the Nations in collaboration with the Nigerian-American Social Enterprise Network will on Wednesday April 12, 2023 hold a capacity building workshop on Building Collaborative and Mutually Beneficial Partnership between Neighborhoods, Community organizations and small businesses for social good and poverty reduction. The programme host and President, Mothers of the Nations, Bishop Dr. Priscilla Otuya speaks with Christian Benefits on the one-day event taking place this week Wednesday at Fahrenheit Hotel, opposite EKO Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos from 10am. Excerpts below
Please, tell us what Mothers of the Nations is all about
Mothers of the Nations is a Faith-based non-governmental organization aimed at building faith-driven female social entrepreneurs that build the families and small enterprises that build the nations
Since when has the organization been in existence?
Mothers of the Nations has been in existence since 20 years ago. It was initiated during my tenure as the women’s leader of the United Gospel Churches Association of Nigeria (UGCAN) and we have been operating silently but strongly with the Women of the faith community
What are the aims and objectives of the organization?
The aim of the organization is to sensitize women of the faith community on the need to work together to achieve their common goals. The objective is to provide an international network platform for mutually beneficial relationships between women of the faith community in our part of the. World and their counterparts’ world over
How will you describe the impact of the organization over the years?
For the first time we now have an international federation of female ministers groups and organizations initiated by Mothers of the Nations and we have chapters in various countries including the United States of America, United kingdom, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Sierra Leone, and by God’s Grace we will be inaugurating the Austria chapter in November, God willing. We also have the International Women’s business collective that is aimed at encouraging and equipping our women to invest their time, talents and treasures for self-reliance. One key initiative you will soon see from our stable is the kingdom women’s leadership institute aimed at re-orientating female ministers to enable them balance ministry with home building and social entrepreneurship, and we are investigating in this as priority now because so many female ministers have lost their marriages due to the challenges that comes with ministry work.
Also, tell us about the Nigerian- American Social Entrepreneur Network
The Nigerian-American Social Enterprise Network is a network platform for faith- based social entrepreneurs aimed at building business bridges between Nigerian Social Entrepreneurs and their American counterparts through the person to person business model
Social enterprise in a lay man’s language is doing business, making profit and using part of your profit to solve social needs. It would be safe to say that Paul the Apostle was a social entrepreneur, as many other apostles were as we can read from the book of Acts of the Apostles chapter two where it is recorded that the Apostles sold their properties to feed the poor amongst them, and it is written also that pure religion and undefiled is to visit the windows and orphans in their affliction. The April 12th meeting is a defining meeting aimed at sensitizing the faith community leaders, especially the Christendom on the urgent need to begin to look into social entrepreneurship as the way forward now We are the light of the world and hope of glory, and as it is written also, we are to shine in the darkness of this world to the glory of our father that the world and her leaders will be able to navigate their way back to Christ and his kingdom. This we can achieve by investing our talents and treasures for social good and this is what we are out to achieve with the April 12th meeting Darned is covering and overtaking the government and system of this world as it is written, and the dark situation is making room for us to shine by proffering workable solutions and establishing projects that will benefit our members and our communities In other words, we are out to sensitize and mobilize the Christian faith communities to invest in providing quality health and educational products and services within easy reach at affordable costs, as our over dependency on earthly government have consistently failed us
What is the main purpose of the workshop?
The main purpose of the workshop is to network believers in business and social enterprise for social good
Who are the main targets of the workshop?
Believers in business, professionals and leaders
Lastly, what are some of the expectations from the programme?
We will be casting the vision that day and then call for partnerships for the main launch and implementation