Why Ibidunni Ighodalo, Temie Giwa-Tubosun and Dr. Ola Orekunrin-Brown were honoured as women helping the world conquer COVID-19
Ibidunni Ighodalo, the late founder of event management company Elizabeth R and the Ibidunni Ighodalo Foundation, has been named as one of the people helping the world in the fight against COVID-19. She was named alongside the founder of LifeBank, Temie Giwa-Tubosun, and Dr. Ola Orekunrin-Brown, the founder of Flying Doctors Nigeria. They were the only three Nigerian women to make it to the list.
The recently released Neusroom 100 list which highlighted 100 people, organizations, countries and things helping the world conquer COVID-19 featured the three women for their contribution in tackling the pandemic.
The recognition is coming less than a month after the sudden death of Ibidunni Ighodalo, the accomplished businesswoman who passed away on June 10.
A few months before her death, Ighodalo was responsible for setting up some of the first COVID-19 isolation centres in Nigeria. Starting with the 110-bed Isolation centre sponsored by GTBank at Onikan, Lagos, she also constructed the 250-bed isolation centre in the bowl of the Yakubu Gowon Stadium in Port Harcourt, Rivers state. She handled the set up of the isolation centres in Enugu, Abia and Bayelsa states. She delivered all the projects before her passing and her contributions rightfully earned her the posthumous recognition by the Neusroom 100 project.
Temie Giwa-Tubosun, on the other hand, has been involved in the frontline response to COVID-19 in Nigeria through LifeBank. She has been coordinating and delivering essential medical supplies across the country. Through a partnership with the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), she built free mobile drive-through coronavirus test centres in Lagos and Ibadan.
Similar to Giwa-Tubosun, Dr. Ola Orekunrin-Brown has been leading the effort to expand COVID-19 testing in Nigeria by developing the capacity for performing up to 6,000 tests in Nigeria since April 2020. She has also coordinated the distribution of masks, IR thermometers and PPEs across the country — and helped with the set up of mobile walk-in and drive-through COVID-19 testing centres in Lagos, Ogun, Zamfara and other states.
According to ID Africa CEO, Femi Falodun, the Neusroom 100 project was created as “a celebration of hope, and an acknowledgement of humanity’s collective will to survive.”
“Neusroom 100 highlights the sacrifices and contributions of women, men, organisations, nations and even things – products of humanity’s creativity that are helping the world win in this long fight against COVID-19,” he said.
Others recognized in the Neusroom list include international superstar singer, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Africa’s richest person, Aliko Dangote, American media mogul, Oprah Winfrey, Nigerian banker Tony O. Elumelu and billionaire businessman Abdul-Samad Rabiu among many others. The list also featured organizations like the World Health Organization, MTN, Reckitt Benkiser, Multichoice, Pfizer and Coca-Cola.
