Recently appointed as a Minister of Youth of the State of the African Diaspora (SOAD), Her Excellency Olasubomi Iginla Aina MBE, has just initiated discussions with two former presidents of Nigeria: His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo and His Excellency Goodluck Jonathan . The topic of these briefings was the situation of the African students who were in Ukraine and had to evacuate the country. Currently, the Minister of Youth is discussing with former president Obasanjo about the need of scholarships for these African students.
Ambassador Olasubomi, a Director of Lightup Foundation, who was then a SOAD ambassador, organised a tour of European nations that share a border with Ukraine. This initiative was to ensure that African refugees would receive the necessary support they required for evacuation, to help identify needs and see how such needs could be urgently met.
The Ambassador went to Poland, Slovakia, Hungary Germany and Romania. In two of these countries, she helped the communities to call the media and to organise the fundraising activities that were so necessary. She also engaged with universities such as Cyprus International University CIU which has provided scholarship support for students fleeing the
war in Ukraine.
Also, in Germany, the Ambassador helped the refugees to manage the situation in a context where they could not understand what they were asked to sign, because of the langage barrier, and some of them had their travel documents seized. She advocated for the release of all seized documents, after several advocacies, the German government acknowledged they were wrong and returned all seized documents. As at today many of the refugees in Germany have been registered and they are currently receiving €350/month from the German government.
