Continued from LOVING KINDNESS: THE COCONUT SIDE OF LOVE 2
Ayo had always shared her sweets and toys with other children right from when she was a baby. It grew with her.
After her graduation, she started serving with a restaurant/bakery when the Corona virus hit hard. The restaurant had to close its sit and eat section.
After the first week of staying at home, Ayo decided she would fry Akara and distribute it to the orphanage close to her home. The first weekend, she fried and took it to them, her culinary skills meant the akara was finger licking delicious. The children had never had such sweet tasting akara balls before.
One of her tricks was she fried hers with palm oil yet it wasn't oil lodged.
The Next week, she went to two orphanages, then three, then four. By the end of the lock down, she had 20 orphanages she visited in the area.
While her NYSC service was slow to resume, she found purpose to sweeten the lives of thousands of children. They aptly nicknamed her. "Miss Joy has come"
One afternoon she met the owner of the restaurant/bakery, and their discussion led to her delivering akara every weekend to orphanages, she spends half her NYSC allowance on it every month, the man was elated and told her he would support her with bread from their bakery. Five thousand small sized bread weekly.
And so another challenge came up, how would she transport bread and akara all over 10 kilometres by herself. She approached one of the orphanages which had a bus and they gladly put the bus to serve. She fueled it.
One Saturday morning, Mr. Kingsley Ibukun - was hungry for akara, he saw her delivering akara as usual and approached the bus with the intention of buying. He parked his car and met her, she gave him akara for free and declined payment. He ate to his fill and took her number.
Two weeks to Christmas, she fell sick and doctors had to put her on bed rest due to excess stress. That weekend, her phone kept ringing non stop; calls from orphanage directors, to drivers, to market women, to Mr. Kingsley. She told them she was on bed rest. On the Sunday, unknown to her, and coincidentally, many of these people she had touched their lives went to visit her at home. They realized the magnitude of work she did every week to make the akara possible.
Women from the orphanages volunteered to work with her weekly and Kingsley took over the logistics part.
A few weeks later she was approached by 10 NGOs who wanted to collaborate and fund her. Today she is known is Mrs. Ayo Ibukun and all she does is fry and deliver akara and bread to over 100 orphanages every month.
Take home:
When you are all about kindness, you never know the ripple effects and the reach of your actions. This is how the coconut water behaves, Its mystery and sweetness has left its impact on the world, will your kindness make impact?
In your own little way, Be kind, be sweet.
We sure don't know when one will need help from anyone around us. It's always good to be good. Yummy Akara btw