Pharm (Dr) Afusat Adesina, ALPs chairman, Lagos State; Pharm. Yewande Olorunisola; Pharm. Omolara Ebitigbha, ALPs secretary, Lagos State; Pharm (Dr) Seliatu Ohimor, ALPs editor/secretary ALPs Scholarship Committee; Pharm. Olamide Osoba, and others at the event.
In commemorating the International Women’s Day, 2025, the Association of Lady Pharmacists (ALPs) Lagos State Chapter, has presented scholarship to two indigent students from Ajegunle Junior High School, Ikorodu and Eva Adelaja Girls Secondary Grammar School, Bariga, on Friday, 7 March, 2025. The group also presented cash donations to some petty traders at Ketu market.
These kind gestures, they said are in line with the ideology of the group, which always seeks to celebrate the resilience and industry in women and promote the Girl-Child education.
Speaking at the presentation of the scholarship awards to Success Okafor, a JSSS 1 student of Ajegunle Junior High School, and Joanna Akintola, a JSSS 1 student of Eva Adelaja Girls Secondary Grammar School, the Chairman, Scholarship Committee, ALPs, Pharm. (Mrs) Modupe Alli, expressed the delight of the association to support the education of the indigent Girl-Child, as a means of accelerating action in building a solid future for girls education.
“As part of our activities, aside celebrating the International Women’s Day, we award scholarships to some indigent students, as many have benefited from it.This time around, we want to give to a student in your school. That’s why we are here, and actually to touch her life and of course to celebrate the International Women’s Day.”
Ajegunle Junior High School; Pharm. Olufunmilayo Agbeniyi, chairman, Int’l Day of the Girl Child/Int’l Women’s Day Committee; Pharm. (Dr) Afusat Adesina, chairman, ALPs Lagos State; Pharm. Modupe Alli, ALPs national financial secretary/chairman, ALPs Lagos Scholarship Committee, presenting the scholarship cheque to the beneficiary, and her guardian, Success Okafor, in the presence of Pharm. Omolara Ebitigbha, ALPs secretary, Lagos State; and Pharm. (Dr) Seliatu Ohimor, editor/secretary ALPs Scholarship Committee; at the event.
She emphasised the association’s expectation from the beneficiaries as the scholarship is expected to be a great motivation for them to put in their best into their academics without any distraction, whatsoever. “When we give scholarship to indigent students, we expect them to show more, to really appreciate our gesture by being better in their studies. We don’t want a case that we award the scholarship to a student and it’s like, they want to do it, they want to do it. In appreciation of our kind gesture, we expect improvements in the academic performance of the students.”
Alli thereafter presented the scholarship to Success Okafor, and Joanna Akintola, respectively as she pronounced divine blessing and success on their paths.“They will go places and they too will be in a place that they will give out scholarships to many students ,” she prayed for them.
Also speaking at the programme, the ALPs Chairman, Pharm. (Dr) Afusat Adesina, buttressed on their mission in the schools and explained roles of pharmacists in the communities across the nation. “We as lady pharmacists are here today because we are celebrating the International Women’s Day. As pharmacists, we are the drug experts. You find them in the hospital, they are called hospital pharmacists.
“So when you go to the hospital, that section that deals with your medication, that gives you medication, that gives you counseling on how to use your medicine is the pharmacy and we are the pharmacists. Some of us are hospital pharmacists. We are also in the community, manufacturing industry and institutions”
She commended the leadership of the schools for the display of drug abuse awareness banners on the walls, describing it as a right step in the right direction, saying the association also engages in school moral campaigns against dug abuse and illicit substances. “I am very happy, vice-principal for these flyers and posters on drug abuse. I want to see more of that for the enlightenment of the students.”
For Pharm. (Mrs) Funmilayo Agbeniyi, chairman, committee on International Women’s Day, 2026, the theme of the celebration, “ Accelerate Action” aligns with the association’s programme for the day, which is advancing educational and entrepreneurial actions for girls and women empowerment.
“It’s always our delight as men and women of honour to celebrate ourselves. On such a day like this, we recognise talents, opportunities, potentials and we like to make impact in all of these. When we see people who can put in a lot with their limited resources, we identify with them and empower in our own little way,
“I was impressed sometimes ago when I saw a woman driving a commercial tricycle. I had to stop to take a shot of her, because it gladdens my heart to witness that, to prove that what a man can do, a woman can do it better.”
Pharm. Omolara Ebitiga, secretary, Lagos ALPs and Pharm (Dr) Seliatu Ohimor, editor, ALPs, Lagos State, encouraged the beneficiaries and their parents in utilising the scholarships effectively, as a mark of gratitude for the good gesture done on them.
The duo of the Vice-Principal, Mrs Kehinde Adesanya and Counsellor, Mrs Ogunlolu, of Ajegunle Junior Secondary School, expressed their profound gratitude to the association for selecting their student as a beneficiary of their scholarship. They promised to monitor the student in ensuring that she performs better in her academics going forward
The guardian to the girl also thanked ALPs for the assistance in her daughter’s education, as she prayed God’s blessings upon the association.
In the same vein, the Principal, Eva Adelaja Girls Secondary Grammar School, Mrs Viniyon Ayobami Buhari, expressed her deep appreciation to the association for their continual support of Girl-Child education in the state, as Akintola is not the first student in the school to benefit from their benevolence. She assured the group of the school’s commitment in ensuring proper supervision of the beneficiary’s studies for improvement.
Meanwhile, the awardee and her mother, Mrs Akintola, took time to express their profound gratitude to the association, as the mother narrated how she has been struggling to cope with the financial demands of her daughter’s education, describing the scholarship as a divine arrangement.
The International Women’s Day, usually commemorated on 8 March , of every year, was initially declared by Vladimir Lenin in 1922 to honour women’s role in 1917 Russian Revolution. The United Nations later adopted it in 1977 for the promotion of women’s achievement socially, economically, professionally and politically.
The 2025 theme, “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment,” calls for action that can unlock equal rights, power and opportunities for all and a future where no one is leftb ehind.
 Lagos State Chapter, has presented scholarship to two indigent students){kind=link}