Professional inclusive advocate and social worker, Princess Adebayo Adetoro has been a caregiver for over 15 years and takes pride in taking care of others, especially persons with disabilities. She has always had a special connection with people who are in need. By virtue of her growing up and her profession, she learned the true value and the passion and desire to care for people. According to her, “the people I care for are not just my patients, they are my family and I love them”.
Citypeople visited her Home, popularly referred to as ADOCA Home where she has been taking care of over 25 person with disabilities for about 10 years, and had an exclusive chat with her.
Her home, ADOCA Home, is the best place for a loved one living with a disability. With the right care, they are able to continue their daily activities and live the highest possible quality of life in the care of professional caregivers. The services include, but are not limited to: Transferring and mobility assistance, Exercise, Bathing, Grocery shopping, Assistance with physical activity, Incontinence care, and lots more
She spoke about what inspired her to take up the responsibility of taking care of people with disabilities, and how the journey has been for over 15 years.
I am Rotarian Adebayo Adetoro Omoba, I’m an ambassador for peace. It’s one of the awards I receive in 2006 when the foundation was just a year plus, based on my humanitarian works to the society. I am a Rotarian too. I am the 13th and first female president of Olambe Rotary Club and I’m a social worker by profession. Some people call me a charity preacher because that is what I love doing. I love to serve humanity.
Basically on this home, this is ADOCA Home, it’s an acronym of Adetoro Omoba Cares Foundation. We started this project back in 2005 in Ikorodu. By God’s grace May 1st this year will be the 16th year we have been serving humanity. We have a team that we work together, that we call them team charity. We take care of the widows, indigent pupils in schools, orphans, and most especially, persons with disabilities. And that is our major focus is ADOCA Home.
This place has been institutionalized since 2011. We got here in 2011 November and ever since we have never closed the gate of this place, unless at night when they want to sleep. There is no holiday here. We work every day because of the angels we care for, are the people who could not do anything by themselves.
Initially when we admitted these people into our Home, a hundred percent of these persons with disabilities could not do anything for themselves. The caregivers do almost everything for them, we feed them, we bathe them, dress them. But today, the majority of them have been trained to do things for themselves and by themselves. Some cannot even turn their body. Some couldn’t tell when they are hungry. We think for them. Some are permanently on diapers. We do everything for them.
The youngest in age here; we call her face of ADOCA Home, she’s 7 years old, but when you see her you will think she’s 3 years or thereabouts. Her challenge is Asphyxia stage 3. Her growth is retarded. We admitted her when she was a year and 2 months and this year, she will be 8 years. The oldest among our angels is 36 years. We do everything for him, we bathe him, put him on the diaper, and feed him. He doesn’t work or talks. There are a few others that could do one or two things on their own.
There are some people who couldn’t talk or walk when they got here, but now they are talking, some are also walking. An example is Keji, in her case, she got here when she was 2 years, she couldn’t talk or walk. But I realize physically she was gone, but mentally she was okay. And when you can still communicate with their brain, there is a high possibility for them to grow and respond to therapy. But those that have a problem with their brain. There is little or nothing you can do to train them. You can only just keep managing their state. So we started training Keji to do some things. She will be moving with her buttocks but within 5 to 6 years, she started walking. Some of our major donors gave her a scholarship too. So she’s also learning academically. She’s been in school for over 2 years, she writes and talks very well.
So that is what we do here at ADOCA Home.
DO you have special training to be able to go train these people?
Yes. As I said, I am a social worker by profession, and I have my Diploma in Social Work and I studied International relations. But right from the onset, I’d loved to serve humanity, based on other field works I have been doing as a social worker student, we go psychiatrics, prisons, all sort of. And along the line when we started this in 2005, I worked with a home that cares for people like this, I am also a network marketer with supplements companies. I do treat clients, do massage therapies for people with strokes and medical issues for regular people that pay for their services.
When I started this place, when they are still very at their tender age, I place them on supplements, so by the time they growing, the supplements begin to rejuvenate the dead cells and the weak cells.
So because some of these people are still open to mental and physical readjustments, I tell people not to call them disabled. Besides, anybody can give birth to them whether poor or rich. But because society has excluded them, even their parents will begin to see them as burdens. They keep them in the inner corner of the house, they are not exposed to the world and cannot communicate. With time, their brain won’t be tasked because they have not been able to receive and process anything.
But when they bring them here, we start in our own little way to build them alongside people who are in the same category as them. Some may be mentally passive due to the defects, they may not be able to do anything but to just live and grow without being able to do some basic things, but if there are issues that supplements and diet boost can fix, I ensure I do my best. The fact remain, we admit all of them. They talk or not, walk or not, their parents do want them or not, we stand as their family to take care of them. However, it is pertinent their parents MUST want them & care for them. Some are challenged with Cerebral palsy, Spina bifida, Asphyxia, Ataxia, Hydrocephalus, muscular dystrophy, macrocephalus etc…They are humans and must be respected and cared for.
How do you get intake?
We have TV stations, who have been more like our supporters for quite a while now, they will interview us on TV stations, in which Orisun TV remain our major Media sponsor. We do give our contact details during those interviews and we are also on social media. Sometimes, when they hear that someone with special need has been dumped somewhere, they call us and we go there to pick them. About 80% are Orphans /abandoned and about 20% of them who still have parents still come to visit and bring stuffs.
How do you get funding?
Yes, the project is no doubt bigger than my capability, but God has been faithful. I started with the fact that I can help them with profits from my personal business, but as God will have, public-spirited people started to come in and donate. We usually organise Christmas for them every 26th of December since 2011. Donors call in to give cash donations, materials, clothes, food and so on. We use whatever they donate to take care of them.
What is the acceptability within this vicinity? How do neighbours accept the children in your Home?
The acceptability is beyond 100% now, but when we got here in 2011, the fence was still not there, people will see them drooling in saliva. The people around would approach my staff and discourage them from the job. They would advise them to get another job. Some went as far as saying I have a metaphysical power to have chosen to take care of these categories of people. They would say because I am a princess ,probably I have a motive to have gathered these people together.
They were surprised seeing a young person doing this work. You know, those were the challenges when we came in. But now, everybody has understood that as human, we are created to serve one another in different ways ,my kind of work is one. I have no metaphysical power, I am a young lady living my destiny. Meanwhile, community understands better now and has accepted my work and my Destiny Angels.
Even when our donors call anywhere in the world, they refer to these people as angels, because that’s what I call them.
What is the passion that draws you to taking care of persons with disabilities?
It has been a childhood ambition for me to take care of people, but I never thought I’d care for those with disabilities. I lost my mom when I was 2 years, so I had to live with my uncle. My uncle raised me and my other siblings. My uncle and his family tried their best I must say. I am a Christian, but I learned one important thing from the Muslim quotes through readings which says that “the paradise of a child is at the heels of the mother”. Then as a kid, whenever I think about my late mum, I would cry, because I have believed as an innocent child that my mother was a coward, to have died and left us while we were still young. It was a wealthy home, but we felt the absence of our mother.
So I would tell my friends that Jesus must not come until I fulfil all my mission, which include taking care of the needy. Wanted to build houses for those who don’t have mothers. At a point, I went into acting, because I’d also said I wanted to be a superstar, make serious money and become a philanthropist. I thought I could define my becoming myself, but God’s way differs from ours, He led me as HE purposed. So when I came across people with a special need, I realized that there are people whose cases are even tougher than the people I’d thought I intend to take care of. Then the journey began when least expected.
So, it’s been God all the way. Anytime I come around, they all recognize me and care givers caring for them even in their different conditions, you will see the excitement in their faces when they see us relating with them. As tedious and time consuming it is, this work may not have given me money like other big jobs can but it has given me prestige and honor. I feel fulfilling serving humanity. It has placed me on certain levels I never thought I could get to. Although I’m still aspiring to serve more and achieve more trusting GOD.HE has been faithful using amazing Destiny Helpers.
Talking about helpers, what are the things you will be needing to push this mission?
May GOD bless all our Donors GOD has used and still using for us. They are the reasons we serve on.
I pause to say “GOD bless our Father, His Royal Majesty, Kabiyesi Olasunkanmi Tijani, Alawowo of Awowo Kingdom” ,one of our Cherished Royal Fathers, for his immense supports. He bestowed us an acre of land in Awowo Kingdom, Ewekoro LGA, Ogun state to build modern edifice for our Angels, the construction is very much in progress though we stopped last year due to financial constraint. We are planning to move to this bigger place once completed as you can see, we have exhausted all the spaces here, and we cannot admit anyone here anymore. Although we are planning on moving some of the angels who are very much stable and mature to another homes very soon where they can be trained further till we complete the permanent site, we need to complete the permanent site, so we can have more spaces for them.
We want to build vocational centers for them, where they can learn handworks and special skills.
So we need helpers to help complete the permanent site. It’s so pathetic that the least call I get from people who want to bring in new intakes is 5 on a daily basis, and for now, we do not have space anymore, yet these Angels need to be taken.
You will know that these parents are embittered. You will feel it from the conversation that they don’t want the child. I will still be the one to pacify them and tell them these kids are special.
Most of these kids are not made this way from the womb. We can prevent these things from happening because when it happens, it’s not curable. You see, some women may be fleshy or tall, but their pelvic may be very narrow. When their pelvic is narrow, there’s no way that woman can give birth naturally. But when they get to the hospital and the doctor said they will need to carry out a cesarean session, they will “reject in Jesus’ name”. They will tell you they will give birth with the small pelvic like the Hebrew women. I am a Christian and I also believe there is nothing God cannot do. But at times when God creates you as a woman with a small pelvic, and God creates doctors and gives them the wisdom to identify some medical issues and proffer solutions to control or solve them, wisdom demands that you obey the doctors and let God’s will be done.
The simple direction is to go to the theatre and let the doctor carry out the C.S and the child will be as perfect and healthy as it should be, and the womb will be healed in two months. But the women will disagree and maintain they will give birth naturally with the tiny pelvic. In the process, the baby gets tired. That’s why when they give birth to some babies, they don’t cry. That’s call asphyxia (loss of oxygen. During that time, when they give birth to a child and the child s crying, this means blood is moving fine to places it should go to, this help the neonate to develop as a healthy baby but in a case that a baby is born, with umbilical cord already detached and the baby do not cry, it is a serious issue as it will affect the baby’s brain, the brain is dying and before you know after few hours, the child will start having some difficulties. This is asphyxia (loss of oxygen, which lead to cerebral palsy in most cases).
So many things cause giving birth to kids with birth defects, the reason I do advocate and give lectures on disabilities prevention.
So that place is our major concern this year. We want God to send us helpers to help us complete the project, so we can start admitting more people with disabilities. So they can move around. Even exercise on its own can heal their brain. So they can walk around doing exercises. We are using a plot to do farm so they can eat fresh food.
So our major challenge is to complete the permanent site, infact, I am trusting GOD for Donors that will ask for the place, take Engineers there and complete the building or take plots there and build another dormitories, clinic & vocational training centers. We have 6 whole plots bestoyed us to the Glory of GOD.I wish they live better than our current facility can provide. Some of my Angels herein and those outside we couldn’t admit can definitely get better if received adequate care by GOD grace. We also need mass transit for them to go out sometimes. Then we need physiotherapists’ supports. We need more medical supports as you can easy, it’s not easy to care for them medically.
Who is Adebayo Adetoro Omooba?
I am a Christian, and a Versatile Servant in Service to Humanity. A dedicated Mother, my kids are part of team charity, they are in Schools now else you would have seen them here because we do this work together. I am a Social Worker, Health Researcher, Marketer and a Humanitarian. I did my primary and secondary school in Ondo town, Ondo State and my tertiary institutions in Ogun State and Lagos State University respectively. I am currently running my Masters in Social Work at Lagos State University.
