CARE by all STANDARDS Necessary

Change Pilgrimage

In 1997, Taiwo AKINLAMI set out to pioneer in Nigeria and arguably, African, a Social Empowerment Advocacy, focusing on Child Rights and Responsibilities, CARE and Protection, Childhood PRESERVATION and Family Strengthening.

His commitment is informed by his own personal story, which he captures and summarizes as, ‘ERASED Childhood (0-18), EMPTY young Adulthood (18-27) and CHANGE Pilgrimage (27 till date).’

Having recorded resounding turnaround, tremendous and seeming impossible change in his personal, after surrendering his life to Christ and began to discover and practice certain universal principles of personal change, Akinlami was compelled to democratize these principles, which have transformed his life. Thus he often refer to himself as the guinea pig in his own laboratory of change.

Journey into Best Practice

Taiwo AKINLAMI in his 21(twenty-one) years of Social Interventions of Securing A Friendly and PROTECTIVE Environment™ for the precious African children has been exceptionally privileged to consult, train and provide contents for leading local and international Child-Focused Organizations (CFOs) like UNICEF, the British Council, SOS Children’s Village International, UNFPA, USAID, Child Frontiers, just to mention a few.

Discovery of STANDARDS AS THE KEY TO CARE

One of his greatest and most priceless discoveries, having been exposed to international best practice in the area of Securing A Friendly and PROTECTIVE Environment™ for the precious African child is that except primary and secondary caregivers and practitioners accept that care for children at both private and public levels are impossible without embracing global standards of care, the best of their efforts only become counterproductive and a huge disservice to the precious children they claim to provide or design care for.

CALL TO INEVITABILITY OF STANDARDS

The foregoing discovery has led him to conclude that primary and secondary caregivers and practitioners must make deliberate efforts to find, understand, accept and embrace the standards they must put in place to provide and design care for the precious children under their care. The advocated standards of care must be in accordance with global requirements of providing and designing care for them to make a difference in our interventions.

The REAL Definition of CARE IS STANDARDS

It is Taiwo AKINLAMI’s conclusion from his wealth of experience that the real definition of care is STANDARDS.

Akinlami has further argued that when the design and provision of CARE does not embrace global STANDARD of care as a prerequisite, it is nothing but giving MENTAL NOTICE to the design and provision care for our precious children. MENTAL NOTICE of According to him, MENTAL NOTICE is neither deliberate nor purposeful; it is an accidental affair, often authored by circumstances not within our control either by virtues of our ignorance or negligence. These are efforts that are not initiated and pursued with a SENSE OF MISSION.

It is Akinlami’s postulation that when we the design and provision of CARE is predicated on STANDARDS, it results to paying ACTUAL NOTICE to the CARE of our precious children. According to him, ACTUAL NOTICE speaks of conscious and deliberate efforts of caregivers, initiated and pursued with a SENSE OF MISSION, aided with KNOWLEDGE (what to do), SKILL (how to do) and ATTITUDE (fortitude to do), aimed at achieving adequate CARE for the precious children under our care.

CARE according to STANDARDS

It is Taiwo AKINLAMI’s final analysis that CARE in this context is to anticipate the needs and threats to the precious child under our CARE and make adequate provisions, according to GLOBAL STANDARDS to meet the anticipated needs and mitigate the threats well before they arise.

STANDARDS, SYSTEM’S APPROACH, POLICY and CULTURE

For CARE to be designed and provided through STANDARDS, Akinlami has further postulated that the processes must as a matter of prerequisite embrace SYSTEM’S APPROACH and the SYSTEM’S APPROACH only becomes ACTIONABLE when it is CODIFIED into a POLICY, on which every stakeholder within the space of the private and public institutions, designing and providing care are trained and retrained, with sole aim of establishing and entrenching STANDARDS as a CULTURE (DOMINAT VALUE SYSTEM).

Akinlami defines SYSTEM’S APPROACH as CAREFULLY identifying or recognizing EVERY STAKEHOLDER, including THE CHILDREN, in Securing A Friendly and PROTECTIVE Environment™ for our precious children, ENLIGHTENING, EMPOWERING and ORGANIZING them towards CREATING AND STRENGTHENING PROTECTIVE ENVIRONMENT and PROVIDING SUITABLE and SUSTAINABLE SERVICES DELIVERY.

The foregoing efforts only become operational from rich and purposeful interaction of stakeholders, aimed at Securing A Friendly and PROTECTIVE Environment™ for our precious children, as provided by LEGAL INSTRUMENTS, POLICIES, CUSTOMS and TRADITIONS, which set the formal and informal frameworks for Securing A Friendly and PROTECTIVE Environment™ for our precious children, upholding THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD as the operating system.

Akinlami’s postulation is summed up thus: CARE is defined by STANDARDS, STANDARDS are defined by SYSTEM, SYSTEM is defined by POLICY, POLICY is defined by EMPOWERMENT and EMPOWERMENT establishes and entrenches STANDARDS as a CULTURE for the design and provision of CARE.