On the 11th of August 2016, the entire Wiinning Eleven team gathered together to host the official press conference ahead of the event tagged “WIINNING ELEVEN 2016”. After a welcome address by the team’s content strategist, Miss Bunmi Oluwasade, a brief introduction of all 4 speakers of the day was done.
The first speaker, AJAYI RASHHED OLUWATOYIN(PRODIGY):
CEO, D’prodigy Group, D’Prodigy Entertainment, Famous Tv
Founder, Winning Eleven Organization
An Estate Management student from the University of Lagos.
He gave a brief insight on the existence of Sickle Cell Disorder in Nigeria. In his words “Nigeria is the highest ranking country with Sickle Cell Disorder, with over 150,000 babies born with the serious condition every year and about 25% of adults having the sickle cell trait.
Sickle cell disease in simple terms is a genetic disorder due to presence of an abnormal haemoglobin in the red blood cells, called haemoglobin S instead of haemoglobin A. An individual either has haemoglobin A known as the AA genotype, a combination of A and S haemoglobin known as the AS genotype or the haemoglobin S only, known as SS genotype; these are the sickle cell carriers.”
“Presently, there is no cure to the Sickle cell disease but there exists a cost effective treatment for the pain and other manifestations of the disease. The most important aspect of Sickle cell treatment is early medication interventions with pain relievers (analgesics), antibiotics, good nutrition, folic acid supplementation and high fluid intake. In extreme cases, blood transfusion and surgery may be needed as invasive procedures.
Contrary to the statistics of over 96% Sickle cell carriers surviving into adulthood in the United Kingdom and the United States, It has been estimated that only 5% of the children with sickle cell disease live past the age of 10 in Nigeria.
But we have come to make this history and re-write the story of our Nation; proving that rays of light can emanate from our dark continent. As a team we want to: give hope to the survivors while remembering those that have fallen in their battle for survival and ultimately put an end to the spread of this disease.
Hence, I introduce to you WINNING ELEVEN 2016, an initiative of the D’Prodigy group.”
The second speaker, Nosa Richards, also a student from the University of first choice and the Event manager for Winning Eleven 2016, gave more details on the event.
He said “Winning Eleven is an organization set up by D’Prodigy Group, an entertainment brand, for people living with Sickle cell Disease. It is dedicated to spreading awareness and educating the general public about the disorder and at the same time changing people’s orientation about those affected and the disease itself. WINNING ELEVEN seeks to create this awareness by a football tournament which will be organized annually with its maiden edition staged for September 2016.
The event is a football tournament between 8 schools – 5 Federal and 3 private school. A little spice for the event is that each school gets a Nigerian celebrity tagged to their team. With an estimated target of over 2000 guests all over the country, the event is set to take place between the 19th and 24th of September 2016.
To ensure the success of this event, we have put together an 8-man committee that consists a Chairman, overseeing the overall activities of other members of the committee, 2 event managers, logistics coordinator, Content developer, IT expert, welfare and media coordinators.
The events logistics shall be very strategic in all its approach, hence, we divided this event into 3 stages: planning, execution and follow-up, with each stage having its own timeline. Publicity, venue bookings and setup, welfare, security and health arrangements, sponsorship and partnership deals constitute the planning stage. During the event we would ensure all laid down protocols and guidelines are duly observed to avoid any form of hitch. So far we’ve made huge progress at the planning stage as we would be unveiling at the end of this conference: Winning Eleven’s logo, our official website and social media handles, to ignite a massive media campaign and awareness for this event. Details about this event will be made available on the website too and people will have the opportunity to make donations and contributions in cash and kind.
We appeal to the general public to support this event in the best way they can and also spread the #WinningElevenMessage.”
Telling the press more about the event highlights and sponsorship and partnership opportunities was Adekunle Mustapha
Chairman, Winning Eleven Planning Committee.
A student of Architecture from the University of Lagos.
Sees to the overall planning of the Winning Eleven 2016 event.
In his words “On the first day, all school teams and supporters are expected to arrive at their camps ahead of a full week of activities. The opening ceremony is scheduled for the second day with a student celebrity match between participating schools and a health talk on sickle cell awareness.
As earlier stated, each school team gets a professional footballer as their head coach and a sports analyst from any sports media house as their referee
The two qualifying matches are scheduled for the next day being the third day of the event. Prior to this match is a health screening exercise for genotype and blood group.
On the fourth day, two knock out matches will hold to determine what teams move on the semi- final stage.
No activity will take place on the fifth ahead of the finals. The climax of this event will consist Nigerian celebrity match before the final match between the standing teams. Also at the event, voluntary donations and contributions will be made.
It should be noted that 70% of the entire financial donations and contributions to Winning Eleven 2016 will be used for the effective healthcare delivery and upkeep of people with Sickle Cell Disease. While 30% will be utilised in the preparations of the subsequent editions”
The fourth speaker Bunmi Oluwasade, gave an acknowlegement speech of all brand and organizations that had given a hand of support ahead of the event.
She remarked, “The entire Winning Eleven team gratefully acknowledge the following brands and organizations for their contributions, thus far, in cash and in kind received in support of this event.”
“We appeal to the general public to make worthy contributions and partner with us to make this event a huge success.
Sponsorship and partnership opportunities are open and with great benefits which will be made available on request.
Our ultimate goal is to eradicate ignorance and stigmatization associated with Sickle cell disease and also to stop the spread of this disease through maximum awareness. We believe in this dream and we desire that you be a part of this event of a lifetime”
On media broadcast and publicity, she said
“A LARGER PERCENTAGE OF OUR CAMPAIGN AND PUBLICITY WILL BE HOSTED ON WINNING ELEVEN SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS.
LIKE OUR PAGE ON FACEBOOK…. @WiinningEleven16
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER….@WEleven16
INSTAGRAM…@WiinningEleven16
http://www.wiinningeleven.org which is the official Winning Eleven website will be active on Saturday, 20th august 2016. Kindly check it out for more updates on the event”
When asked on the reason behind the use if soccer as a campaign strategy, Mr Ajayi Rasheed replied ” Over the years, we have seen walks and talks as a form campaign strategy but one thing that can actually bring youths together and educate them is soccer. A larger percentage of Nigerian youths love soccer”.
When asked about the future plans of Wiinning Eleven, Adekunle Mustapha commented by saying “Winning Eleven is here to stay, we hope to go round the Nation in the coming years and involve other schools outside Lagos state. By this we hope to create a massive awareness on the disorder and stop the spread of the disease.
On the event venues and highlight, Nosa Richards noted that ” there will be an art exhibition of works of people living with the disorder. Also a free genotype screening and counselling session is scheduled for two days- opening and closing ceremony. A celebrity match on both days and theme song launch are also part of the event plans.
At the end of the question and answer session, the official Wiinning Eleven logo was unveiled, alongside branded jersey samples and the trophies that will be awarded to the Winners.
This was proudly sponsored by Haggai sports,a subsidiary of Zenith sports.
The entire Wiinning Eleven event is also proudly sponsored and partnered with the Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria.
Below are photo clips from the press conference :
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Published by Ayo
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