Media Aid For Development Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that promotes positive values through edutainment, premiered the movie, Enslaved, on Sunday, 24th October, 2023, in Police Training Center, Abuja.
Enslaved is a film about human trafficking, child labour and sexual exploitation. The premiere was to launch the NGO’s One Community Campaign. The film was produced in collaboration with Spice Media Limited.
One Community Campaign is a project designed to sensitize the public especially those in the hard-to-reach communities in Nigeria on issues relating to health, education, early marriage, harmful cultural practices on women and children, gender-related issues, human trafficking, child labor and exploitation, illegal migration, cross-border crime, drug abuse, corruption, use of youth for political thuggery, participation in elections, etc. through edutainment.
The keynote address was delivered by the DG of NAPTIP who was represented by the Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer of the Public Enlightenment’s Department Mrs. Jessica Arikpo commended MADEF for a well thought out initiative of using films to enlighten the populace on the dangers of trafficking.
The Chairman of the event, Mr. Uzonna Nwangwa, the GMD/CEO of Irvin Global and Investment Group also charged to public to support in the fight against human trafficking and child labour.
The Keynote Speaker Pharm (Dr) Nwolu Okerewa, a Fellow of West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (FPCPharm) and a Member of the American College of Clinical Pharmacists spoke on the health effect of trafficking on victims.
The event saw the elites of the society in attendance who were equally honoured with the deserving MADEF Positive Impact Award. Some of these dignitaries include the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr. Bitrus Bako Nabasu (MNI) who was awarded “Icon of Administrative Prudence of the Year”. Senator Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe, Senate Minority Leader was honoured with the “Most -rated people friendly senator of the year, the Statistician General of the Bureau of Statistics, Dr. Simon Harry was awarded the Strategic Leader of the year; The African Executive Director of the ONE CAMPAIGN, an International anti-poverty organisation Mr. Edwin Ikhuoria, was awarded the Humanitarian Icon of Societal Transformation of the Year; Chief Engr. Ben Olisa(FNSE) an Assistant Director in FERMA was awarded Icon of Peace and Most Rated Engineer Of The Year, Miss Lydia Ajayi a visually impaired Teacher/Guidance And Counsellor at Foundation Academy Jos was awarded Youth Personality of the Year, Mrs. Onyinye Ahuchogu, a retired Director with CBN was awarded Icon of Women Empowerment of the Year; Pharm (Dr) Nwolu Okerewa was awarded with Most Impactful Pharmacist and Youth Friendly Leader of the Year; and the chairman of the event, Mr. Uzonna Nwangwa was awarded Most Impactful Young CEO of the year.
Other dignitaries at the event include members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Coalition of Road Safety NGOs (CORSAN), Ngwa Associations in Abuja and others. The Lead Partner of MADEF and the director of the film enslaved, Mr. Ugochukwu Ohuonu expresses his gratitude to the Director General of the National institute of Police Studies, Prof. Olu Ogunsakin and his team for their support and expresses his grievance for the International Organisation on Migration(IOM) Nigeria, United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Ministry of Women Affairs who did not honour the invite to execute their assigned roles at the event despite series of follow-ups and reminders and attendees who were anxious to hear from them.
The MADEF Director of Programs and Content, Mr. Uche Melvin shared the major challenge with putting up an event of this magnitude which he attributes to inadequate funding and charged the government and other relevant stakeholders to support the ONE Community Campaign and other such campaigns to enable people have access to the right kinds of information in the language they understand.
