The Ekiti State Multiple Birth Trust Fund, which provides support for families with multiple births has been revitalised in the state after a four-year break, with the disbursement of products to 104 families by the First Lady, Erelu Bisi Fayemi.

Erelu Fayemi who made the first tranche of the disbursement in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on Monday, expressed her happiness that the Trust Fund is back. She also congratulated parents who gathered at the ceremony organised by the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in collaboration with the Office of the First Lady.

Cash gifts, baby foods and other family support products were distributed at the event to families with multiple births.

Erelu Fayemi said the Multiple Birth Trust Fund was initiated in 2010 to provide assistance for families who have been blessed by God with Multiple births, but who were finding it difficult to cope because of their circumstances.

“We were receiving many reports of mothers giving birth to twins or triplets in the hospitals and the fathers running away because they were scared of how they were going to settle the bills of their obligations,” she said.

She said the Multiple Birth Trust Fund supported no fewer than 740 families between 2010 and 2014 noting that “while some of these families received cash and products support from the administration, investments were also made on behalf of some of the families who had triplets.”

The investments, according to her, were created to support the children through school on a long term basis.

Erelu Fayemi expressed her sadness for the non-continuation of the initiative post-Kayode Fayemi administration, hinting on the need to institutionalise the trust fund.

“I was deeply saddened to note that this initiative did not continue in the post-Kayode Fayemi administration. It is, therefore, my pleasure that it has commenced now as part of the Social Investment Programmes of JKF2.

“However, I am also using this opportunity to alert the public that we are going to be working on ways to ensure that this program is institutionalised, so that it is not done at the discretion of incoming administration but is done as a matter of cause, as an obligation to Ekiti people,” she said.

The state Commissioner for Women Affairs, Chief (Mrs) Moji Fafure, said over 700 multiple birth parents benefited from cash disbursed during the first term of the Fayemi-led administration.

She urged them to utilise the amount given to them for the care and upkeep of their babies.

Mrs. Oriowo Victoria who spoke on behalf of the beneficiaries lauded the First Lady for the initiative while describing it as unprecedented.

•Photo shows Ekiti State First Lady, Erelu Bisi Fayemi with the family of Mr and Mrs Adekitan Oyenuga and their triplets during the Multiple Birth Trust Fund/Product support disbursement in Ado-Ekiti… on Monday