Hadiza Gana Mohammed is the Founder of the Hina-Gana Foundation, a humanitarian Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in the FCT. In this interview with ENE OSHABA she speaks on the NGO, her passion for street children and indigent women among others.
What’s your background and what’s Hina-Gana Foundation all about?
Hina-Gana Foundation is a foundation with passionate individuals who are willing to sacrifice their all to ensure they give undiluted love to everyone around them.
I am the founder and I am a woman with passion for street children. I hail from Niger state, Abawa tribe precisely.
I graduated from Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai. I have been giving out to street children for over 15 years. It started from when I was a teenager.
What were your childhood dreams and what motivated you into charity?
My dream was to become a lawyer because I am always standing up for anyone who is cheated but I was deprived of this profession because my university was not offering a law course at the time I gained admission.
When I am asked what motivated me to start the Hina-Gana Foundation my answer always is God alone knows the answer.
This is because I started giving alms when I was 19 years. I was in 200 level and I was staying at Soje Complex along Emir Palace Road in Lapai.
The complex had about 35 to 40 self-contained flats and I stayed there till the end of my school days. Whenever I am not having tight lecture schedule, I will cook and share with some of my neighbours in little portions.
During fasting periods, I give them everything I cooked I was not directed to do this by anyone. It was about the passion to give and the passion continued to grow that even my neighbours wondered why I was often sharing with then and whenever I gave them anything they would say: Again?
At that time, all my feeding allowance was from my parents. I remember each time I called home to say my food was finished my parents wondered how I usually finished N10,000 worth of food stuff within two weeks.
You know N10,000 food stuff as at 2009 was not small. However, mine didn’t last up to two weeks.
I didn’t really know what an NGO was at the time; I didn’t know what Outreach was. I was only following how God was leading me. With this, I can boldly say I am not after any benefit, financial or otherwise. What God is doing for me alone is immeasurable.
Have you have any peculiar experience since you started the NGO?
First of all, I was running an NGO without knowing I was doing that. I was just sharing food with neighbours during my school days. After my graduation, I started cooking to share every Friday and each time I didn’t have money, I will make kunu aya like 50 bottles and share.
One day, I posted it on my WhatsApp status and people started asking me if I am selling it. I told them it’s for sharing. As went on, people started reposting and I started posting on Facebook. I got offered to volunteer position with an NGO and before u know it, I was already volunteering in four NGOs.
I put in all my efforts each time they had an Outreach and I volunteered. Most of the times I didn’t go empty handed. I always made contributions.
I was doing all these alongside my usual Friday food sharing. I never thought of owning an NGO, I just felt good each time I saw someone smile because of me. I feel a kind of inner satisfaction.
If I had only N1,000 and someone comes with his/her problems, before I think of myself, I will solve the person’s problem first. Sometimes I cry seeing how people take advantage of my not being able to say no to their request. God is always with me, I have never been stranded financially, God always sees to it before I plead. Humanitarian service is what I was born for; I am for the street children till I take my last breath InshaAllah.
Are there any challenges you face?
Yes, there are a lot of people hide under the umbrella of humanity service to do all sorts of things. Some have abused the privilege hence making people with passion not to be easily recognised.
Something happened in 2018 during an Outreach of an NGO I was volunteering for. That day was the day I told myself: “Hina, you are unique. Your purpose of giving is different from theirs.” From that day, I decided to stay on my own and be giving the little I can to people.
Gradually a lot of my friends were encouraging me to turn my Outreach programmes into an NGO. “You will prosper in this because you are born for this,” they said.
The encouragement spurred me to approach a friend to register the NGO for me and that was how I came up with the name Hina-Gana Foundation. These are combinations of my initials.
What keeps you going?
God keeps me going. I don’t know how He does it, but I am being directed and controlled by God. This is because sometimes I see what I am supposed to do in my dreams. Most times people approach me and ask me to direct them towards how they can own an NGO I am usually surprised because all I have been doing was never directed by anyone. I just go as the spirit leads.
I run my NGO in my own way because it’s just a gifted passion, no matter how pressured and stressed I am, when it comes to humanitarian works I don’t feel lazy.
Most times, especially during fasting, I am usually admitted twice before the end of fasting because I go to the market myself, cook a bag or half myself, package myself, and go out for distribution too. After collapsing twice, I had to employ one person but am always assisting from start to finish because alone she can’t do it with ease.
Sometimes I ask myself, why are you stressing and doing too much? Till date I can’t find answers to that. And looking around my life, I am one individual that loves unconditionally except one deals badly with me. I love humans more than myself, a lot of individuals have abused it but I still find myself loving over and over again. Simply it means that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well. Whatever that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thorough. I am just a passionate person. And that passion is what has taken me far.
How do you get fund to carry out your activities?
I don’t source for funds; I just do my thing within my capacity. There are few individuals who love what I am doing and approach me to support me with what they can. Normally I feed 100 street children every Friday and I feed 300-500 street children every day from beginning of fasting to the end.
In 2019, during the COVID-19 pandemic, all the people supporting me couldn’t help me to carry out my daily feeding for the month of Ramadan. I reached out to them and there was no positive response because of how the country was at that time.
Fasting was approaching and even a bag of rice was not available, everyone was holding back because they were reluctant to spend. On the first day of fasting, I sat down and imagined how the street children would feel not seeing me bring food as usual before they break their fast.
I had some cash I saved up, it was meant for my rent which would have been due the following month. I went to the ATM and withdrew N80,000 and cooked for the first day. I continued till I emptied the money I had saved up.
However, I was not sad; I did not even imagine the consequences. Even as I was sharing the food, people advised me to stop going close to the street children because I could contact coronavirus but till date, I never had any symptom of the virus. Some of the people who were advising against having contact with the children ended up contracting the virus.
Seeing the number of people in critical condition, I will start going extra miles to source for funding InshaAllah.
I have not approached any agency for funding, in fact, I have not involved any, I have been feeding street children for over five years now. I have fed approximately 30,000 to 40,000 street children all by myself without the funding of any agency.
Seeing that I was born for this, I will do my best to ensure I start reaching out to government agencies for assistance.
Would you say giving children food solves their problems?
The whole idea is letting the child have a taste of good meals from time to time. You know what it feels like eating sweet jollof rice with chicken; sometimes I add juice to it. However, now, I pray and hope to get the necessary support and collaboration from government, other organisations and international bodies, so that I can have a place where I can keep them, feed them good meals, educate them and also teach them skills. With God my dream is close.
What do you think of parents having children they can’t take care of?
Not all pregnant women give birth and don’t want to take care of them. In my just concluded programme where I was able to give delivery kits to 100 pregnant women, I found out a lot of them lost their husbands, things got difficult for some of them because their husbands have one issue or the other.
In the society we are today, everyone is feeling the heat; we are just surviving by the Grace of God. So, some pregnant women just find themselves in a position that they can’t abort the child. And imagine someone who is struggling to make ends meet gets married, you don’t expect the man to be looking at the woman. He will want a child of his own because that child might live a different life from his. The best we can do is to assist, but we can’t stop pregnancies from happening.
Do you think the almajiri system should be sustained in the North?
Yes, it’s good because most of the problems we are seeing cannot be easily eradicated. And if we keep mute, the situation will get to a time when even the individuals involved are no longer safe, someone will take advantage of them.
What is your take on family planning considering the harsh economic state of the country?
Family planning is a good idea if the government can make provisions for free tests, which is a woman can go to the hospital and get tested for the best family planning for her body system and still get the family planning done free of charge without spending a penny. It will go a long way to help our women.
To be sincere, women are trying; a lot of women are going through a lot and still striving to ensure their children get the basics of life which includes education. When you go to foreign countries, a lot of policies are in favour of women, but here in Nigeria we are on our own. No one cares about what you are facing and even family members don’t care.
You will see a woman dying in silence and that is why the cases of depression are on the increase. Women are forced to take any situation they find themselves in to satisfy societal norms. I am glad women are beginning to get exposed.
When a man gets a woman pregnant and she gives birth to the child and still struggles to feed and take care of the child, a time will come she will fight back. A woman prefers to struggle to any lengths so her children will not become an element of pity. God bless all the responsible women in the world.
In the time we are today, any woman that folds her legs and watches without getting a skill is on a mission to self destruction.
What is your vision for the future, say five to ten years from now?
My vision is to own an international primary and secondary school where I can pick street children and give them the best education to enable them leave the street forever. This is because with education, no matter how little the income is, it will go a long way.
What’s your greatest strength and achievement so far?
My greatest strength is open mindedness, creativity and ability to endure pressure. In terms of achievements, I have been able to feed more than 40,000 street children, enrolled more than 50 street children in public schools, some even at the age of 14 have never been to a classroom, enrolling them in school is like changing their future.
What is your advice to government on humanitarian response?
A lot is happening; people are seriously in need of support and help. So, government should try as much as possible to reach out to the people whose situation is crucial by using some NGOs who are willing to help. Government should be able to distinguish between NGOs that are passionate to help people without looking at the benefits. When you are helping individuals, the only benefit is God’s blessings and unending protection.
