Berkley Center

Background: Mrs. Simiat Bayonle Orundiran is president of the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria’s (FOMWAN) Oyo State branch. The federation operates across Nigeria to support vulnerable children, orphans and women. Rooted in Muslim teachings, FOMWAN serves as an umbrella association for all Muslim women’s associations countrywide and aims to both educate women and children in the Islamic faith, as well as provide them with health, educational and financial support. Osuolale Joseph Ayodokun, a WFDD consultant, spoke to Mrs. Orundiran on November 16, 2017 to learn more about FOMWAN’s foundation, goals, and ongoing work. During the interview, Mrs. Orundiran shed light on her personal motivations for carrying out this work, as well as the role religion and faith plays in driving forward FOMWAN’s mission.

Could you tell me about yourself? What is your educational background?

My name is Mrs Simiat Bayonle Ogundiran and I am the amiran of FOMWAN Oyo State branch. I have a WAEC certificate, a Grade II certificate, as well as a degree certificate, and my master’s and M.Phil. certificates from the University of Ibadan. I studied Arabic and Islamic studies for my degree after grade II, and then I have ehn enhn, a B.A in Islamic studies for my degree certificate, a degree in educational management for my master’s, and a degree in educational psychology for my M.Phil.

Can you tell me a bit about your career?

I am a teacher by profession. I taught in public school and I was working at St. Paul Primary School from 1980 to 1981. In Yemetu, I taught in a secondary school.

What is FOMWAN all about, and when was it established?

FOMWAN is the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria. It is an umbrella association for all of the Muslim women’s associations. We have our headquarters in Abuja and we are present in all the states of the federation and in all the local governments of the federation. We meet once a year for a conference; we are going to one in two days and this time it is in Kano. 

The association aims to educate women and children and to empower women. We first give them an Islamic orientation to educate them about their religion and then we provide humanitarian services. We invest in education throughout the federation through FOMWAN schools. Currently, there are about 18 FOMWAN schools in Osun state. Here in Oyo state, we have three FOMWAN schools and we are planning on supporting a FOMWAN school of nursing. The foundation laying for the school of nursing will be on the 26 of this month, inshallah. 

We do vocational training for children. We also provide health services through health checks of our members regularly at the meetings by taking blood pressure and blood sugar, as well as seeing that everyone is in good condition. We empower members by giving them microfinance and small loans to engage in small business. We also have cooperatives through which we lend money to individual members, just to mention a few.

FOMWAN is an umbrella body. Who founded it?

Aisha Lemu is the founder. She is a Briton who was born Christian but married a Muslim, Sheikh Lemu, at Minna. He educated his wife using Islam. When his wife saw the beauty of Islam, she tried to spread it to women in Nigeria. After that, when she found out that Islam in Nigeria is well formed and practiced, she traveled to other parts of the continent to establish Islamic women’s associations in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, and so on. Today, we also have FOMWAN in the UK. She is the one travelling to educate people on why we should be united and exist under one umbrella in order to talk to the government about the needs of Muslim women.

For what purpose did Aisha Lemu form this umbrella body?

For unity and to be able to speak to the government on the needs of Muslims so that we can receive our rights. Also, to educate women and children and empower them. We educate them to know about their religion and also educate them on western education to be able to fit into society and to be a role model to others.

How big is FOMWAN? What are its goals?

Very, very big. When I said we are throughout the federation of Nigeria, I wish you could meet us at the conference. We are around two million. In Oyo State now we are 80 members, so 80 participants are going from Oyo State. The number of participants permitted to go is according to the population in that state.

Our vision and our mission and our goal, it’s to be able to talk with one voice about the needs of the Muslims and to be a role model to other women. We also wish to empower women so that we don’t become a liability to the society and our family and are able to contribute our own part.

What are the activities FOMWAN usually carries out to achieve all these goals?

We have regular meetings where we interpret the Qur’an to let us know our duties to our creator and then to our fellow human beings. We establish schools for our children in order to educate children both in Islamic education and Western way of education so that in all fields of learning our children can fit in, be it in medicine, engineering, etc. We pay visits to the sick in the hospital in order to preach to them and to give them gifts. We visit the prisons to talk to the inmates so that they may have a change of mind and know how to call their God in order to change their life and fit into society and not go bad again. 

We also help orphans, abandoned children, and children whose mothers have died. If the mother dies, the family will be depressed and not know what to do, so they will be looking for home. We are the only Muslim orphanage so far in Oyo State and formerly we were the only one running an orphanage throughout Nigeria. We recently established one in Osun State. Whenever there is a case of an orphaned Muslim child, the government will call (organizations must register with the government; we are registered with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs). They will then bring that child to this place. There are a lot of Christian homes, but they will not take a Muslim child to such a place. That does not mean we don’t admit Christian children to our orphanage. 

What do you about street children?

They are the most vulnerable children. We gather and educate them to a certain level. For example, if we see that maybe a child was beaten by the parent and he ran away from home, then we take that child and try to trace them to their home in order to reconcile them with their parents. Where we don’t locate the parent, we keep them in our custody and enroll them in public school because we cannot afford private school for all of them. But we still have some that go to private schools if an individual among us is ready to sponsor the child. We have sent some to university. 

We also have some that have faced parental abuse or a parent who has impregnated the child. In this case, we took care of the child until she delivered. The child is still with us, and the lady has been handed over to the family of the father. With cases like that, we arrange for the father to go to the police. We also have abandoned children who were found in the gutter or refuse dump area. When we receive a call that there is a child here, we rush to take the child to the hospital so they can do the necessary tests on the child. If they find that the child is free from diseases, we take the child home. When a father brings in a motherless baby, we keep the child for two years. The family should then come and pick them after two years, but some do not come back. Some even change their address to the extent that you will not be able to locate them.

When was FOMWAN founded?

FOMWAN as a body was founded in 1984. The Oyo branch was founded in 1987 and we started our orphanage in 1987. A few months after we started FOMWAN in Oyo State, a woman who had four children died at University College Hospital (UCH). She was a Muslim. The late Aare Musulumi called on us: “You, FOMWAN, this woman that died is a woman like you. Can you not go and take the children and take care of them?” And that is how we started our orphanage. They did not release the children to us directly from UCH; they released them to the late Shall Mashal. Through him we collected the children. We found only three alive; one of the quadruplets had died. But we thank God for the three. They have married. We were the ones responsible for them before they married. We did the wedding for them. They came with nothing but 500 Naira. The man that was their father also died, and the mother had a few children before those four. When we had the wedding, they came. We are even settling matters for one of them. 

Do you work beyond Oyo State, or is it only Oyo State that you cover?

This is a state FOMWAN and we are around the state. But at the national level, we have a strategic plan. At the conference, they will tell us what we are going to be doing during the next year. All states are working on education, Islamic schooling, and normal schooling. All states are doing humanitarian services. We usually get awards every year for the kind of humanitarian work we are doing. Because everything you do is a contest, we in Oyo State usually take the first position for humanitarian work. All of us are working on health. Another area we work in is dawah, which is preaching and interpreting the Qur'an. Thus, we work in education, health, and humanitarian work. 

What programs do you do for each section of the population? 

For the youth, each year we have two camp programs. We have the state youth camp and we have zonal youth camps. FOMWAN separates the states into six zones. Our own zone is the southwest zone, where we have Ogun, Lagos, Kwara, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, and Oyo states. Edo was here before, but I think they have removed it. In our zone, we have a conference once a year. These happen at the same time throughout Nigeria, but it is for only female children. At the state level, both male and female children attend and the state organizes it. If Oyo State hosts the zonal conference this year, next year Lagos will host, another year Ondo will host, and another year Ekiti will host. That is how they do the rotation of the zonal youth camps. The last one we did was at Shaki. We have done one in Eruwa and we had the camp at Ibadan, which we liked. We registered our youth with the government so that when they have a youth program, our children usually take part in it. 

Regarding women, we meet every 15 days at the state level. We have local government branches; each local government has their meeting days and then each Asalatu (women’s group) has their meeting days. Finally, we have yearly conference like the one we are going for in Kano. 

What other things do you do to empower the women?

We have cooperatives; each woman can borrow money from the cooperative to expand their business. We have soft loans for members and rotate those among the local government. You know that we have about 33 local governments in Oyo State. So, when we give about six local government loans now, by the time they return it, another group of local government will get. We empower them with a sum of 20,000 Naira for each member. We do radio programs every Friday from 3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. so when you listen to radio you will hear us. This is to educate the public about what God says about their behavior and thinking. Every year during Ramadan, we do television recordings whereby throughout that month of Ramadan, somebody sponsors us. We have lectures; we call the ulama to lecture and listen to his preaching. Then during Ramadan, we go around to the philanthropists’ houses to pray for them. We recite the Qur’an and they give us money and we gather that money to do some sponsoring on the radio and so on.

Why do you do this work?

We think that it is a service to humanity, to serve our God, and to make our own contribution. Because if you don’t do it now, all these children will be taken to Christian homes and they will be converted. Secondly, if we don’t do it, most women who don’t have the opportunity to go to Arabic school to learn about this religion will have the problem of running to the wrong area.

How does religion/faith motivate the work of FOMWAN?

You know the Qur’an is just like the manual to a vehicle or our television. When you have deep knowledge of it, how you are to spend your life from the day you are born to the day you will die is explained. If you don’t read it, you will not know. It guides our behavior, our thoughts, and our thinking. That is why we know that the kind of work we are doing is rewarding and that is why we are putting such effort into it, because we know that it is God’s wish, and these are the kinds of things God wants human beings to do.

How does your faith in God influence the kind of approach with which you are doing this work?

Where don’t we use it? God said in the Qur’an that if you don’t pray and do things with my own command, you will just be worrying. But if you think I am God and you call on me, I will make the work easy for you. So, he is the one commanding us. 

Let me give you a few examples. If we don’t use faith, we would not be able to live with ourselves peacefully, and there would be rancor. But because we know that there are individual differences and because we are doing this kind of work, we try to endure and accommodate one another. We don’t look for faults. We know that we cannot change somebody, especially someone over 40, and make them do something different. But if the person knows that if he does something good or if what he is doing is punishable, he will do the act that is rewarded and will not do the one that will lead to punishment. That is why we interpret the Qur’an, because the Qur’an says that if in life somebody cheats you, God does not like cheating. It is not you that will fight back, it is God. So once you know that somebody cheats you, you will not mind as you know that God is there to judge. 

Let me give you another example. When a couple marries, it is spelled out in the Qur’an that this is the duty of the husband, this is the duty of the wife, and these are the duties of the children. If you know your duty, you will make sure you do it in order to get rewards, while failure to do it leads to punishment from God. You don’t like punishment, so everything you do when you marry, you know what to do. Even if you want to eat, drink water, dress, enter the bathroom, everything has been spelled out on what you should do. 

Definitely somebody that is religious will look for and have that knowledge and practice it. We have to pray five times in a day. You cannot have prayer anytime you like; there is specific time for each prayer and you have to have that prayer at the specific time in order to receive a reward. But somebody that is not knowledgeable about the Qur’an will just say I will go in the morning, and I will come and have everything together in the night. They are not good Muslims. 

How do you get funded?

Initially when we started with FOMWAN, we made a small box and went around the mosque to ask for goodwill offerings and donations. After some time, we stopped that. People know now what we are doing. The people who came in just now brought money and food items. We keep that money to feed the children. Then some that really appreciate what we are doing promise to give us certain amounts in a month, so we add all these donations together to pay the salaries. Before individual members donate, we donate ourselves. We donate monthly at the meeting for children’s education. Let’s say somebody needs money for an NCE course; everyone will contribute. And we have an education trust fund. We just open the account and as we make contributions, somebody will collect it and take it there. We will collect money for the prison at the meeting to use when we want to bail somebody out or to buy something that is needed in the prison. During Ramadan, we normally prepare food for them. 

It is through the donations that we work and can sponsor programs. That is why I said that the government does not sponsor us. When the government sees an abandoned child now, they will call FOMWAN. FOMWAN will give the child a name, and it will do the naming ceremony when the child is some months old, like six months. Then they will come and collect the child. We do not know where they take the child to, and they will not give us Kobo on it. Except when we are have a holiday, that is when they will come with one bag of rice, for example.

We are spending two million Naira every month to feed these children and to pay the salaries of the staff. A lot of people come here to celebrate their birthday, like this boy that came while you were here today. It is his graduation. He told his parent not to cook anything because he wants to come to the orphan home and that anything they want to give to him, they should buy so he can bring them here. We have Corpers who usually come here to donate, as do Muslim associations and those others that are interested.

There are no international donors.

If more funds were made available, what would help FOMWAN to work more?

More is always needed because we are working with vulnerable people. When we see children that really need help, we are going to help. If the child is brilliant and the parent cannot pay for school, we help. But every day people are coming and we are just telling ourselves to peg this number. If we don’t peg the number we are going to run into trouble. There was a time that those giving us bulk money did not pay for about 11 months, so we felt it seriously. Sometimes when there is a wedding, they collect donations for us and also at some naming ceremonies. 

As you know, people love free things. We keep someone’s children for two years, but what is stopping them from coming to take the child? Some of them will remove all their contact means, remove their phone, SIM card, etc. We sent somebody to university. The parent did not come. When they brought the child initially when the mother died, nobody came to check that child until the child was like eight years. The child has finished university now and he is with one of our member’s family because there is a limit to where they can stay. We have a lot of them at our homes because when they don’t keep them, we don’t just send them away.

Besides funding, looking at all the work of FOMWAN what are your needs?

We would need more laborers, workers that are dedicated. We have enough workers, but we could have even more if we had more money. We are thinking of having a retired matron and some nurses that will work on the night shifts. The secretaries that you met there are the main morning supporters of the work; they eventually go home. Other maids may be misbehaving if there is nobody supervising them. And all of us cannot be here all the time. We should soon go home, but if there were no gap between shifts of supervisors, the supervising will be thorough and they will always do the right things. We do have retired matrons among us that are doing voluntary service. 

Offices are on a rotational basis and I have spent the first term of two years and are on the second term of another two years. After this two-year term, I cannot hold that post again. I have to move to another thing. We have committees that work, including the Home Committee, Education Committee, Health Committee, Prison Committee and Dawah Committee. All of the committees are working, but they are different from permanent workers. We don’t pay the volunteers who work on the committees. We know that we are doing it for our God and he is compensating us in our work and business.

Looking at FOMWAN in Oyo state can you tell me the capacity of your staff?

The staff that we have presently are up to 30 members, with two executive secretaries and one driver.