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By Kennedy Eberechi.
Identified as an amazon, woman valour and pathfinder of rare breed; Mrs.
Jane Obozele; the Founder and Executive Director of Charity Care
Foundation is a manifestation of a hybrid cultural upbringing which has
directly and greatly influenced her antecedents.
Driven by passion and determination to harness the potentials of women,
while also exploring their capacity to lead an army of achievers in
addressing some of the challenges bedevilling the Nigerian society
through charity and volunteer work, she created the Miss Charity
Ambassador Pageant.
Since its inception in 2014 as a trademark of Charity Ambassador Care
Foundation, the Pageant has succeeded in turning her passion into a
beckon of hope, riding on the crest of the desire for a qualitative
event to redefine pageantry with impact on communities and the society
at large, even up to making global impact.
In a recent chat with her, Jane Obozele informed that the Miss Charity
Ambassador Pageant is designed to raise confident, elegant and
inspirational women who would use the power of their inner strength and
character to galvanize a large army of stakeholders to alleviate the
sufferings of the less privileged across different parts of Nigeria.
She further hinted that the contest is not just about the funfair of
crowning beauty queens, but a platform aimed at discovering and
encouraging talented female youths in Nigeria to participate effectively
in championing charity campaigns and development in Nigeria adding that
it also helps to provide a unique platform that celebrates/showcases our
rich cultural heritage.
As a basic requirement, according to her, the contestants selected from
all parts of the country for the prestigious crown must champion a
social issue that is important to her, which must meet the need of
humanity.
“Our pageant is built on the understanding that women are the catalyst
to national development, thus the need to create such a platform whose
mandate amongst others is to build confidence, inspire hope, empower
through entrepreneurship skills and groom women into agents of social
and economic change”, she explained.
Another area, which fires up her passion, is the prevalence of
political, social and communal crisis around the country today and the
disheartening wave of insurgency/militancy. “There is no better time
other than now to spread and propagate the consciousness of sustainable
peace within our society”, she expressed.
Consequently, the charismatic social reforms advocate hopes to engage
government and stakeholders in Nigeria to seek a participatory and
complimentary attitude in galvanizing the interest of the youths and
strategically re-channel them to national pursuits that will culminate
in development and cultural recovery in a bid to address the burning
issue of segregation and fundamentalism.
“To build peace that leads to development, it is necessary to have
mutual understanding and tolerance between cultures. If people accept
cultural diversity and understand cultures other than their own, it will
contribute to the prevention of conflict, building of peace and
development. Hence, cultural diversity in Nigeria should be seen as an
asset rather than a burden,” Mrs. Obozele remarked.
Continuing, the light-Skinned Ex-Beauty Queen observed that with an
estimated population of over 130 million and over 250 ethnic
nationalities, Nigeria ranks the most populous country in black Africa.
Accordingly, for her, the important part of sustainable peace is
cultural diversity.
“The emergence of differing culture and maintenance of cultural
diversity has raised the possibility of the human race to adapt to
environmental change in the future. Furthermore, in order for culture
itself to retain its creativity and vitality, the existence of other
cultures is a must. New ideas are born from other cultures, and the
source of cultural creativity lies within constant encounters between
different cultures.
“Therefore, the determination to improve cultural dialogue and
integration and empower same through concerted developmental efforts
stands in good stead to be effortlessly actualized when the Citizenry is
fully incorporated into the vision.
“This is because, the moment the citizens are sufficiently educated
about the essence of and the philosophy behind Nigeria’s rich cultural
diversity, it is easier for the different segments of the complexity
that Nigeria is, to now unify and decide to live in peace, harmony,
equality and respect for equity, social justice and practice democracy
the way it should be,” she asserted.
Humanitarian concluded by affirming that one of the fundamental
objectives of state policy is to promote our cultural values. According
to her, to promote cultural values one has to create the enabling
environment for the proper promotions of the different cultural
activities that we find Nigeria.
The innovative, assiduous and focused Jane, who has in view a Masters
Degree in Business Administration and married with children, has no
doubt made a success of her passion, interest, zeal and home front.