Runcie Chidebe, Executive Director at Project PINK BLUE, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Fundraising is one of the biggest challenges facing cancer patient advocacy groups (PAGs)/non-governmental organizations(NGOs)/nonprofits in Nigeria and Africa. Over 50% of the local NGOs and PAGs in Nigeria lack staff, offices, and proper structures, not because they do not want to have them or are not ready. But because there are no funds or resources to make that happen.
Today, several patients and survivors want to start NGOs/PAGs to drive their own personal journeys and contribute to the ecosystem; sadly, they are unable to do so because funding and philanthropy are still low, weak, and emerging in Nigeria and Africa. Many survivors/patients have to struggle even to feed themselves or manage their treatment, let alone secure funding to sustain their NGOs/PAGs. Many cancer NGO/PAG leaders struggle to manage their organization’s finances, social media, press releases, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy, research, patient support, and even legal issues.
One person is running an entire nonprofit, yet the community and country will expect them to do more and more. In fact, I have attended a national meeting where many of the project’s cancer activities were shifted to NGOs to handle, and I asked, ‘Where do you expect the cancer NGOs to get the resources to do this?’ Interestingly, not everyone even considered it.
Cancer NGOs/PAGs require more training, platforms, and opportunities that empower them to explore innovative fundraising strategies. While passion will give you the power to initiate cancer control activities, including community outreach and engagement, funding is the key to sustaining that passion.
Well done, Benson UZOMA and Novartis Sub-Saharan Africa, for this important webinar. Let’s do more.”
More posts featuring Runcie Chidebe.