Brown Button Foundation Nigeria
Commonwealth Point of Light 77. Adepeju Jaiyeoba
Adepeju Jaiyeoba, representing Nigeria, is the founder of the ‘Brown Button Foundation’ which fights maternal and child mortality by training birth attendants and distributing low cost sterile medical kits to mothers across rural communities.
In Nigeria 118 women die in childbirth every day, with more than 60 per cent of deliveries undertaken by unskilled attendants. To date the Foundation has trained over 15,000 birth attendants and distributed sterile kits to 500,000 mothers across 30 of the 36 states in Nigeria. The combination of training and delivering the packs has reduced deaths by bleeding after birth by a quarter in areas where they are used.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, presented Adepeju Jaiyeoba with her Commonwealth Point of Light award at a Commonwealth reception as part of his official visit to The Gambia, Nigeria and Ghana (pictured below).
Adepeju Jaiyeoba said:
“I am deeply honoured at this award by Her Majesty. This award is deeply motivating and inspiring for our team and organisation and it represents a win for every mother we have been able to give an opportunity to watch her baby grow and every child we have been able to give a chance to live his or her potential. As an organisation, we won’t stop until we ensure that the location of a woman at childbirth as well as her economic status in life is never considered as a factor in deterring whether she lives or dies at childbirth.”
Paul Arkwright, UK High Commissioner in Nigeria said:
“It was my great privilege to announce in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, that Ms Adepeju Jaiyeoba has received a Commonwealth Point of Light Award from Her Majesty the Queen. Ms Jaiyeoba is a very impressive individual, who has rightly been recognised for her exceptional voluntary service in combatting deaths in childbirth. Ms Jaiyeoba’s efforts have helped mothers and babies across Nigeria, saving lives today and making an enormous contribution to the future of this great country.”