Queen May right and daughter Danielle left.
Story by Dili Utomi.
Many friends and well wishers of the delectable brand ambassador, a social media influencer, an entrepreneur, an actress who is also a peace ambassador and the founder of May’s Oasis Foundation, May Yul-Edochie affectionately called Queen may gathered around her Monday to celebrate her birthday. The all smiling and gorgeously beautiful woman who has lately featured in two soon-to-be-released movies, “The Uprising” and “THe Waiter” was all bundle of joy on the day.
It was an activity packed day as the celebration started with a lot of friends attending a Church Mass at the Divine Mercy Catholic Church, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.
The programme of the day then took the celebrant with most of her friends, well wishers and acquaintances alike to the slum of Makoko for a scheduled meeting with the Baale in order to help ameliorate the tough situations of some indigent, but lucky residents of the area.
Inspite of the initial delay occasioned by some set backs as some toughies (area boys) demanded a huge sum of two million naira before they could allow the entourage into the area, the programme still went on after some level of settlements with the toughies.
With friends after the Mass celebration at the Divine Mercy Catholic Church, Lekki Lagos.
Many bags of 50 kilogramme rice, large quantities of 5 kilogramme rice, about 100 units of 4 litres cooking oil including the already cooked and packaged foods and drinks were given to the large crowd of women gathered inside the compound of the Adekunle primary school, Makoko venue of the event.
Some friends of the celebrant also used the occasion to exhibit generous hearts to some of the people of Makoko, Patricia Uchenna Onumonu popularly called lady Trish used the happy moment to offer 10 lucky women an apprenticeship scheme with steady stipends in her fashion house for a one year period.
A lot of goodwill messages flowed from the friends and colleagues of Ambassador May Yul-Edochie, top of them all is one from Ambassador (Dr.) Chinaza Jennifer Ugboaja, the national secretary of the International Association of World Peace Advocates (IAWPA). She said “Today, I want to acknowledge the work that Queen May is doing, she is really unveiling a lot of untold stories to the society. In our country today, most people do not feel the pains of the less privileged, but believe you me, I am amazed with what I am seeing here today and the world will be pleasantly surprised with what Queen may is all about, she is a queen and nothing less”.
Ambassador (Dr.) Chinaza Jennifer Ugboaja left and Dr. Chioma Ajunwa-Opara on the right at the occasion.
Ambassador Chinaza Jennifer Ugboaja added that “I decided to sponsor this event for my friend and fellow ambassador because she is a hard working woman and because I feel that it is going to add to the milestone already achieved by my friend Queen May as she has chosen to celebrate her birthday today in a rather selfless manner. She is a woman with a heart of gold and we at the IAWPA, we are very proud of her”.
Patricia Uchenna Onumonu, lady Trish said of Queen May “Queen May is someone that you naturally love because she is very homely and friendly. We are here trying to help the indigent people of this community in order to help our friend celebrate her birthday. I am a bit upset about what happened earlier, but we will see what we can do to continue to help people in need”.
Joy Makun, a friend also added ” May is my friend and the brand ambassador to my products, this is the third in line of this kind of effort to help the needy, she is like a sister also to me. This gesture goes a long way towards helping people in need and we shall continue to try our best to support our friend in this kind of gesture”.
A cross section of the Makoko women to be helped on the day.
The first and only Nigerian individual Olympic gold medallist, Commissioner of Police, Dr. Chioma Ajunwa-Opara who was at the event to lend her support to Queen May said “Queen May has been a good friend and my prayers for her is that God should give her good health of the mind and body as she has chosen to remember the less privileged. I left my other engagement to be here and that is because I cherish what she is doing, I also think that the impact of what she is doing here is huge and godly as the Holy book admonishes us to help one another”.
The celebrant’s daughter Danielle Yul-Edochie says of her mother “I feel so happy and so proud to be her daughter and also happy for the experience of celebrating with her. I wish her long life and prosperity and I wish that she continues to touch the lives of many people positively. I like the fact that she is brave, confident, determined and knows what she wants”.
The ten luckily selected women to undergo the apprenticeship scheme at Trish Couture.
The celebrant herself spoke to the press in the course of the programme of the day. She says “This foundation was birthed as a result of events and circumstances surrounding my life about two years ago having been through so much as I had to sit back a bit and thought about what to do to move positively forward, having had people who were pillars of support during those trying times. I imagined that there will also be women who will be going through my experiences and who will have no one to fall back on and so the May’s Oasis Foundation was borne out of the desire to help other women in need”.
The celebrant in the middle with her friends and some of the distributed items on display.
Her words “We had difficulty in accessing this place for obvious reasons and it looked like people were trying to reject the help that you were giving to others simply because ‘a celebrity’ was coming in to help people her, but despite it all, I am happy the event held at the end. I want to advise the women to believe in themselves, persist in doing their best for themselves and then the desired rewards will certainly come”.
“Part of the plans to help these women is a workshop meant to teach them how to make liquid wash and a few other things, of course aside the gifts of food products and the meals being served, we also have cash gifts as support to a number of women here today, most had earlier been given tickets to be here and partake in receiving the gifts. We are expending as much as ten million naira and at least two hundred and fifty thousand naira to each woman to aid their businesses here aside from other items to be distributed to them. The initial experience here today will not deter us, we shall continue to extend hands of generousity to the needy as we try to augment whatever amenities that government provides with gestures like this one”.
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