donate-ng is a Nigerian crowdfunding website dedicated to charity fund raising and campaigns for social cause.
The #savekehindeadebiyi campaign started mid-November and ended mid-January; completing a 60day campaign period raising a total amount of one million, twenty four thousand four hundred and seventy naira (N1,024,407.00).
The success of this campaign could not have been possibly if not for the donations from well-meaning Nigerians who were moved by Kehinde’s story on the donate-ng crowdfunding portal – https://donate-ng.com/project/73.
Just about the time donate-ng launched its services: the donate-ng team saw Kehinde’s story on Linda Ikeji’s blog and decided to run with the story. You can call it “backing up your words with your money or vis-visa”. With this achievement, donate-ng has proven crowdfunding is possible in Nigeria.
Since then, many more individuals and charity organisation have contacted donate-ng to show interest in using its platform to raise funds for charitable deeds.
The Adebiyi’s Story.
“It’s just like I am still dreaming. How people that do not know us from Adam would be so committed to helping us this much”.
The words of Mrs Adebiyi; Kehinde’s mother. She runs her small business in the quiet Lagos suburb of Cele Egbe away from the traffic madness synonymous with the “centre of excellence”. Her husband is a professional furniture maker who is very good at his job. They are an average but very OK family with 4 children, relatively unknown in the community until Kehinde developed the cancerous growth in her right ear.
“We didn’t know what to do when it started. We thought it was just boil (abscess) and applied shear butter (locally called Ori) and gave her antibiotics on Doctor’s recommendation. But when it won’t go away we just got frustrated. We cried many nights when cancer was diagnosed.”
Their predicament made them popular and susceptible to scammers. A few people had approached them with the aim of helping, but only a very few truly meant it.
“Several people came to our home and said they could help raise funds for the treatment but only very few of them ever returned with money. A man saw us at the Eko hospital and gave 50,000 Naira. He was always checking up to know how well the treatment was going. A few others also gave some money here and there but it just wasn’t enough. Before the whole dilemma, we were doing well. We could take care of our family with relative ease. But this illness just got beyond any average-living family.”
donate-ng got wind of the story and contacted the family. It didn’t take too much effort to convince them to let us help.
“We were really very desperate at that point. All our savings had been exhausted. It cost my husband the trust of a key client because he could not execute a project awarded due to him using part of the initial payment for the treatment. We don’t like begging, but we were almost going to take situation to Churches and Mosques to beg for help. We were that desperate (Sobbing). We just couldn’t seat back and watch our daughter die slowly and painfully. We weren’t going to let that happen. We agreed to anything and anyone that came our way who wanted to help. Pictures of Kehinde were taken along with that of the family. We know that many people used our plight to collect money from the good people of Nigeria and the world then diverted the funds for their own use. That is just part of the world we find ourselves in. But thanks to donate-ng, our despair has been taken away.”
Like many Nigerians, the family doubted the intentions of NGOs.
“We really doubted donate-ng at first but we still played along because of our very desperate situation. But when we started seeing the response of people on their website showing the amount that has been raised I cried. I just didn’t expect that to happen that soon and because I knew that our baby was finally going to get the help she needs. They kept in touch with us, asking for periodic updates on the health of the child. They even sent one of their team members to check up on our family after the first instalment of the money was paid. This really gave us absolute joy. They brought gifts during the twins’ birthday and sent a member of their team to attend. This for me was unprecedented. I have never seen anything like that ever. Words cannot describe the joy we feel. Now our family that was on the brink of starvation and disintegration, and the agony of losing a child has been restored. I can only ask that God bless the entire donate-ng team and everyone who donated to ensure that this child doesn’t die. May you all never pass through such a horrific and terrifying experience.”
Kehinde Adebiyi is responding to treatment better than anticipated. Radiotherapy is working absolutely well. The Cancerous lump has slowly eased while the swelling has gone down considerably. The Doctors are monitoring the situation so that they can ascertain when surgery to remove the lump can be done. If need be, chemotherapy will also be done.
Kehinde can now play with her siblings and friends, she has even started going to school. She is a good kid who just like the kids of her age loves to run around and play. Very smart and funny; this girl is a prankster. We thank everyone who donated to this cause to put back the joy to the Adebiyi’s. This has been a great experience for us and we are glad it has finally come to fruition.
Thank you and God bless.
donate-ng, launched in October 2015, is the brainchild of Twocan Solution, a Nigerian-owned Information Communication Technology Company
