Celebrated Nollywood Actor/Director-turned politician, representing Surulere 1 State Constituency in the Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA), is undoubtedly a signpost of modesty in person and character which showed in his bemusing free mixing attitude with the electorate, an uncommon trait of celebrities of his standing which he exhibited last weekend during a close-up on him  by our Contributing Editor, IFECHI OKOH. He trapped Hon. Desmond Olusola Elliot with the intention of knowing him better, challenges and achievements of his health initiative. Happy reading:

How did you get the brainwave to kick start this Desmond Olushola Elliot (DOE) Cares Foundation?

Concerning how the brainwave of how such a thing started, leading to the Desmond Olusola Elliot (DOE) Cares Foundation, dates back to my concerted involvement in NGO activities and Civil Rights Liberty Organisation (CRLO) from my earliest period in the film industry.  This was sometimes in 2004, 2005 when I singlehandedly took some stars like Nonso Dieobi, Mojeed Michael, Jackie Appiah and a host of others, to Liberia and later took others to Sierra Leone.  So, having a foundation is not all that new to me. However, all that collapsed when I started my political career and got into office too.

Did your modest philosophy of life play any positive role in starting this laudable (DOE) Cares Foundation?

To me, modesty springs for one’s upbringing, from childhood. Those factors and elements define a person and his character.  If you say this defines my person and character, I would say yes, because a person can never have feelings for people if modesty and character do not define his person, thereby exhibiting my kind of humanitarian point of view which may have led me into this venture. If a person has no such trait, what will be uppermost in the mind of such a person would be his or her personal gain first; and not the people’s welfare. So I want to thank God for endowing me with such a positive attribute which I see as great.

What were the challenges of this foundation and how did you tackle them?

The major challenge is funding: trying to get organizations and individuals to participate in this venture by way of contributing to funds for the foundation’s activities.  That is a major challenge. Second is the health challenges of the patients whose number keep growing astronomically and the third is the cost of medical appliances and medical resources, which have since gone up. So those are the three major challenges.  Anyway, we tackle them; I mean by trying our best to get result.

Can you give us an insight into how you pieced this venture together successfully?

The good thing about any project is the starting point. Once you start, the momentum gathers.  A group of doctors from the Association of Resident Doctors, through one of my constituent co-ordinators, came to me about four months ago to discuss about a project like this. Together, we decided to make it bigger than the one we had planned. The doctors, on their own part, did theirs well.  After that, I reached out to a lot of people I knew, especially those close to me. I mean people like Akinola of House of Loneh, Engr. Fadeyibi, Godfather of mine, Alhaji Anwal Ibrahim and a host of others. The result is what you saw on those two days, last weekend at the venue, Surulere. Reaching out to those people helped us a great deal. After that, we got in touch with eye doctors, ophthalmologists and opticians. We even had a lot of volunteers who were ready to work for us for free. 

Were you constrained to overshoot your budget?

Concerning our budget, we did sadly, overshoot it as a result of many who had surgery, we also had to go for blood transfusion. Some even went for second surgery.  However, we thank God that nobody died in the process.

What can you say are your achievements?

The most noticeable achievement of this historic event is that many residents who had health challenges of all sorts and found time to be there, were treated as expected and relieved as a result. For instance, women who have had fibroid for six to seven years, those with breast cancer, benefited largely from the programme. Those who have been having eye challenges, too, were not left out as all got free eye examination and glasses at the end of the day. We thank God for making sure we served humanity as expected.

Any future plan to have a repeat of this form of medical outreach?

Oh yes! We are planning to have it twice a year. We hope that the next one will come up this December by God’s grace.