When an individual seeks to engage in philanthropic activity, they are usually found doing so within their areas of expertise and experience.
It was therefore no surprise that Dr Odedun would choose to support his country of birth, Nigeria with the provision of high quality health care.
Dr Odedun saw the difficulties people who live in rural communities faced in accessing health care. A lot of them were suffering from and some were dying from easily treatable diseases but because health facilities were far away it made getting to the locations where they could get help difficult. In some cases, people did not even have the money to pay the transportation to take them to the health facility.
Burdened by what he had seen, Dr Odedun decided that he would provide a mobile health facility which would take health services directly to the people.
He ordered a truck from Italy because they have a left-hand drive facility similar to Nigeria. He also commissioned the building of the mobile hospital unit from the UK.
The mobile health unit would be able to provide consultation and diagnosis of disease including breast cancer and treatment of diseases. The unit would also be able to carry out simple operations such as cataract operations.
Complicated operations will be done by Dr Odedun’s team at a national hospital with his charity providing all the health care medicines and requirements to provide the treatment required.
Dr Odedun plans to lead a team of doctors from the UK twice a year to Nigeria to provide health care in the mobile unit to the rural communities. Six other USA based specialists who come from the same area of Nigeria have pledged their services and will join the British team and along with local volunteers, will all perform the mission free of charge.
Whilst Dr Odedun and his team are not in the country, he plans to make the unit available to another doctor based in Lewisham Hospital in the UK who has also expressed a similar desire to provide health services to rural communities.
Dr Odedun has single-handedly provided financing to keep the project running for ten years. He says he is committed to backing the project beyond this period but he hopes that other philanthropists might come on board to support the project so that they can expand into other parts of Nigeria and even into other parts of Africa.
The Charity, under which this project is being carried out is based in the UK and is set up in the name and in memory of Dr Odedun’s mother, Rachael Ayoka, who was the person responsible for ensuring he had an education.