Farewell to a Fearless Advocate

[message from Kingsley Obom-Egbulem, Nigeria]

Dear Friends,

Below is the press statement on the death of Mr. Omololu Falobi, Founder/Executive Director, Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria.

While the Governing Board, management and staff of JAAIDS, including the family, feel so shocked and devastated by this sad news, we would appreciate your kind press dissemination of the news of his transition into eternal glory. Omololu showed us with his life, that it is really not how long, but how well. May his soul rest in peace, and may God grant the family the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss.

Condolence registers have been opened at our Lagos and Abuja Offices for those who are within Nigeria. Please find the address below :

Lagos:
44B Ijaye Road Ogba Lagos ( By Caterpillar Bus Stop, Behind Tastee FriedChicken) Ogba, Lagos
Tel : 234-1-7731457

Abuja:
15 Moronvia Street, Off Aminu Kano Crescent Wuse 2, Abuja
Tel : 234-9-6721744

Burial Arrangements will be communicated as soon as we have feedback from the family. Once again, I thank you for your support as we carry Omololu's dreams forward.

Kingsley Obom-Egbulem, Nigeria

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Friday, October 6, 2006

OMOLOLU FALOBI
1971-2006

The Governing board, management and staff of Journalists Against AIDS(JAAIDS) Nigeria hereby announce the death of its Founder/Executive Director, Mr. Omololu Falobi.

Omolulu Falobi, died from injuries sustained in an armed robbery operation on Thursday night on his way home in Alagbado. The robbers shot at him while trying to avoid the shoot-out. He was on his way home from a speaking engagement where he addressed young entrepreneurs on the importance of social responsibility.

A multiple-awards winning journalist and trainer, Omololu is the founder/executive director of Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS), Nigeria. He was features editor of Nigeria's largest-selling weekly, the Sunday Punch, from where he resigned in 2000 to run JAAIDS full-time. Omololu is a holder of a Bachelor in Dramatic Arts and a Masters in Political Science. At the 15th International AIDS conference in 2000, he won the International AIDS Society's Young Investigator Award. The same year, he was named the winner of the Highway Africa Award for Innovative Use of New Media, an award that recognises outstanding and innovative use of the Internet in African journalism.

He was also a board member of The Black AIDS Institute (formerly the African American AIDS Policy & Training Institute), Los Angeles, USA; the Nigeria Youth AIDS Programme (NYAP); and the Positive Life Organisation (a support group for people living with HIV/AIDS).
In 2001, he was appointed an Ashoka Fellow, joining an elite group of only 2000 'social entrepreneurs' worldwide recognised for their outstanding and innovative approaches to 're-engineering society'. Over the past five years, he has been a prominent advocate on HIV/AIDS in Africa. In recognition of this, he was selected as the African NGO representative on the board of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) for 2004 and 2005. More recently, he has helped in convening the African Civil Society Coalition on HIV and AIDS, which serves as an umbrella movement for organisations involved in HIV and AIDS advocacy and campaigns on the continent.

In recent years, Omololu has served in several capacities in the response to HIV/AIDS within and outside Nigeria: as media coordinator of the African Union Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (2001); member, drafting committee of the Nigerian HIV Vaccine Plan, the National HIV Behaviour Change Communication Strategy and the 2005-2009 National HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework. He has contributed to several publications on HIV/AIDS, including the Communication Handbook on HIV Vaccine Trials in Developing Countries (UNAIDS, 2001), the Media Handbook on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (JAAIDS/DevComs/UNIC, 2003) and Scorecard of Media Reporting of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (JAAIDS, 2005).

Omololu has been active in the vaccine and advocacy field for several years. In 2003, he co-founded the Nigeria HIV Vaccine and Microbicides Advocacy Group (NHVMAG), serving as its Co-Coordinator and a strong part of the group's backbone. He has led several media training programmes on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Zambia.

Omololu would be remembered as a dynamic, committed and resourceful AIDS activist whose contribution towards mitigating the impact of the epidemic would remain for a long time.
He is survived by his wife, his two children, as well as siblings and an aged-mother.

Signed

Kingsley Obom-Egbulem
Head, Research and Communications
Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS)
Nigeria