By Ifeoma Ezenyilimba
Founded on November 20, 2011 with the noble vision of touching lives positively, and improving the wellbeing of the women and the girls, a humanitarian NGO known as Excellent Ladies of Valour and Steel (ELOVAS) Foundation International on Thursday, November 20, 2025, celebrated her 14 years of excellent service and positive impact.
Goodness Media gathered that as part of the activities to mark the 14-Year Celebration, ELOVAS Foundation International on the anniversary day, organised an online WhatsApp training for its members on the theme, “Celebrate Service: The Value of Volunteerism in Advancing Peaceful Living and Societal Development”.
Physical celebrations which would be held across the over 50 chapters of the Foundation that has its headquarters in Awka, Anambra State, is expected to hold from the last weekend of November 2025 to the 3rd weekend of December, 2025.
In her keynote remarks to mark the celebration titled, “ELOVAS’ Journey at 14: Success Story, Challenges and Expectations”, the Founder of Excellent Ladies of Valour and Steel (ELOVAS) Foundation Int’l, QueenLady Ngozi Ekwunife, PhD, JP, thanked God that the Foundation which was founded on 20th November 2011 to give mothers, mothers-to-be and ladies a platform to thrive and excel so as to be excellent individuals and home builders for a better society, had been living up to its vision and mission.
According to her, ELOVAS had for the 14 years been committed to excellent service and impact which were measured by the lives that the Foundation touched.
The Founder pointed out care for the over 10,000 orphans and the aged, annual feeding of the many hungry persons on streets of various towns in Nigeria, provision of scholarship awards to over 30 needy students, annual school outreach programs, empowerment of members with various skills acquisition trainings as well as financial support to members who had major health challenges and family difficulties, as some of the programs which ELOVAS Foundation Int’l had carried out for the 14 years of its existence.
Ekwunife, who identified dire needs of stable finance, official vehicle and permanent Secretariat for the running of the Foundation as the challenges being faced by ELOVAS, solicited for assistance from individuals, groups, corporate organisations and donor agencies so as to help the Foundation address the difficulties.
She pointed out that going forward, ELOVAS Foundation Int’l would be looking towards prioritising strategic partnership, creating avenues for sustainable funding, strengthening her programs and operations as well as focusing on impactful initiatives so as to drive positive change.
Ekwunife, called for consistent commitment and support so as to enable the Foundation actualise her future expectations which according to her would focus on strategic partnership, capacity building, improved care for the needy and the orphans and sustainable development.
The ELOVAS Founder appreciated the international executive council members; the chapters’ executives as well as the life patron, Ozo High Chief Dr Austin Azubuike Ekweozor (Ide Awulu); the grand patron, Rt Hon Pius Chukwukwuma Okoye; the patrons; the patronesses and the ambassadors of ELOVAS Foundation International, for their supports and commitment thus far.
Earlier in her opening remarks, the President of ELOVAS Foundation Int’l, Engr Lady Queen Uche Chigbo, noted that the celebration was that of 14 incredible years of empowering women and girls, breaking barriers and igniting dreams.
Pointing out that the celebration was also an opportunity to honour the tireless efforts, dedication, passion, and commitmentof the executives, members and the pillars of the Foundation, Engr Chigbo, urged all to continuously, be champions of positive growth and love in various places they find themselves.
This was even as she charged all to advocate for policies and practices that would promote equality and justice for women, voice for the oppressed, and believe in what she described as their limitless potentials to build themselves, and shape the lives of the women and girls.
While calling on team members to recommit themselves to ELOVAS mission, the President, urged them to continue to be innovative, and stand united in the pursuit to touch lives and build a society where women and girls would live with dignity, equality and justice.
In her training on the theme – “Celebrate Service: The Value of Volunteerism in Advancing Peaceful Living and Societal Development”, the guest speaker, Amb Martha Onose, noted that as ladies of Excellent Ladies of Valour and Steel, who have been doing non paid jobs for the Foundation, they were already doing volunteering work.
Pointing out that volunteering demanded selflessness, time, sacrifice and money, Martha Onose, who is currently the Executive Director of Community Empowerment and Development Initiative (CEDI) and a fund raising expert, identified fund raising as a major work which volunteers do for NGOs.
According to her, fund raising which could be through payment of monthly dues, donations, crowd funding and sourcing for grants and sponsorships from donor agencies and corporate organisations, was necessary so as to raise funds for the running of the ELOVAS Foundation.
Amb Onose, who said she joined volunteerism to give voice to women who did not have voices, and were being victimized, noted that volunteerism was not an easy work, but what demanded commitment and sacrifices, which, she said, were the beauty of volunteerism.
She identified paying advocacy visits to corporate organisations which have Corporate Social Responsibility, such as MTN; writing and sending out fund raising letters, engaging in multicorporative agency as well as articulating and publishing past activities of ELOVAS so as to attract humanitarian donors and sponsorship, as some of the ways through which the Foundation could get funding and supports.
