By Moses Nosike

Moréniké Ìláò’ebìkan, is the President, Ribbon Rough Foundation, a business owner, a philanthropist, pharmacist and she likes to call herself a renaissance woman because her interests and passion span over several sciences and arts. In this interview, she revealed what young entrepreneurs need to do when starting a business venture. Most important why she formed Ribbon Rough Foundation, and today she is happy seeing the foundation impacting on lives in Africa, Canada and other places. Excerpts:

Moréniké Ìláò’ebìkan

How did you see the vision of Ribbon Rouge Foundation and what is it all about?
12 Years ago, I contracted an infection that would forever change how I view the world. I contracted tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a medical condition which frequently occurs in people living with advanced HIV, or as people often refer to it – AIDS.
I did not have HIV co-infection, but I got to see many patients at the treatment centre who very likely had HIV. They looked a lot more sickly than I did, and the general state of affairs of people at the treatment centre forever impacted me. I also came to take on some stigma associated with tuberculosis. See, tuberculosis is often associated with poverty, drug and alcohol misuse, homelessness, a history of prison and refugee status. In some cultures, people associate tuberculosis with some form of inter-generational curse.
This experience changed how I viewed marginalized people, and brought into my consciousness the damning reality of HIV in Nigeria. I wanted to contribute in some way, and I couldn’t financially, because I was a student at the time. So, I encouraged some of my school mates to put on a show and sell our talents to raise some money. We organized a fashion, art and music exhibition and Ribbon Rouge was born 10 years ago.
Now registered as the Ribbon Rouge Foundation in Canada, we are all about engaging the public, through the arts, in an ever important dialogue on social justice while raising funds to get to zero HIV globally.

What steps did you take to actualise it?
I was very fortunate to have unbelievably supportive friends and colleagues at the University of Alberta, where the idea first gained roots. I recruited fellow members of the Kamit African Caribbean Society. Members of this society formed the organizers, participants and even guests for the first 4 shows.
Upon graduating, I registered a foundation and set about recruiting strategic leaders, social activists, and skilled talent to build our organizational structure and create our strategy for my many ambitious goals.

Over time I have learned more about HIV as a pharmacist. I learned that because of many social and cultural norms, this wasn’t a condition that we could just medicate away. I learned that we were going to need to deal with many bioethical and social justice issues by transforming peoples hearts. I started to think more about the various structural issues that need to be addressed in order to eradicate HIV. I learned that HIV prevention efforts will not succeed in the long run until the various upstream vulnerabilities and root causes driving HIV risk are addressed. There is wide recognition of these facts as critical in preventing the spread of HIV. These factors that commonly contribute to vulnerability include: gender inequality, discrimination and poverty. This is the most complex of all systems changes, adapting cultural legacies, changing how people see each other, addressing human differences while upholding our various liberties.

People do not see how, when their senators vote against a bill to prevent their women being raped and beaten up, or when senators vote to uphold a technicality in their constitution that supports child marriages, they are in fact endorsing the continual birth of children with HIV.

In 2013, 22% of the entire world’s children born with HIV came from our country. Nigeria is a leader of bringing more children into the world with HIV. Ribbon Rouge’s arts reminds you of this fact, shows you the upstream causes, in ways that tugs at your heart for change. So, the next steps I am taking daily towards Ribbon Rouge’s vision of zero HIV (in line with UNAIDS goal of Zero New transmissions of HIV), is to devote time to continual learning on this subject mater. We have many grand ideas and plans to scale programs into African countries as we collect a body of evidence for them.

What impact did you intend to make with the foundation and what extend have you been able to achieve it?
I intended to raise money, provide a platform for culturally diverse artists. To shine a spotlight in an educational way on HIV as a public health concern in a way that meaningfully engages the public on the topic. To build a research institute for a cure for HIV in Nigeria.
– We have raised some money over the years; Approximately $46,000 has been raised and donated.
– I believe we have done a great job providing a platform and sounding board for several local artists; up to 244 individual artists as part of over 30 groups have been showcased on our stage.
– We have certainly engaged the public in interesting ways about a very complex problem.
– We do not yet have that research institute. It is coming. However, we have grown to be a social enterprise which sells arts online and in galleries, and have plans to build business models which will hopefully fund major valuable projects such as this for our country.
The impact of our various activities have been to provide funds to support preventative efforts in East Africa, Nigeria and Canada while working on transforming hearts of the general public to prevent further transmissions.

Have been encountering challenges while trying to meet or satisfy your targeted audience?
We are a toddler foundation. The first show started 10 years ago, but we only registered as a Not for Profit 3 years ago. We have had some growing pains in figuring out which programs are most effective, and how to attract the right audience in order to run our organization sustainably. These haven’t been out of the ordinary, and as an entrepreneur, I have learned to embrace the high highs with the low lows. It is all part of the journey.

What would be your advice to young ladies who want to venture into business enterprises to make the difference in our society like you?
I think it is important to nurture your ideas and passions, to surround yourself always with people who are more experienced and/or smarter than you, who support you and gently critique your ideas in a way that grows the idea. I think it is important to learn continuously and to not be afraid to go against the grain when needed. It is important to set a clear simple mutually beneficial vision that people can connect with.
I believe that of all the resources we need in order to excel, people are the most important, and it is crucial to strategically connect with and influence people as needed for progress towards a goal.