Victoria’s Smile Foundation (VSF) has provided maternal health education, free screening and practical support to 88 pregnant women and girls at the Akure North Local Government Hall in Ita-Ogbolu as part of its programme to bring pregnancy information and basic health checks closer to women in their communities.
VSF is a Nigerian maternal health organisation with its registered office in Lagos. Ondo State has been its pilot state and remains the principal setting for its delivery experience. Founded by Sade Adesakin and incorporated in 2019, the Foundation combines sustained maternity support with community prevention, drawing on public-sector relationships and local healthcare providers.
The outreach drew more than 50 participants before its scheduled start. By the end of the programme, the attendance register recorded 88 women and girls, including seven pregnant teenagers. The teenagers were given priority during screening in recognition of the additional vulnerabilities that can accompany pregnancy in adolescence.
A nurse-led session addressed care for mothers and babies during pregnancy and allowed participants to raise questions about pregnancy and childbirth. Three nurses then conducted blood pressure and blood sugar checks, urinalysis, temperature checks and weight measurements. The Foundation’s event record also notes the distribution of folic acid and food items.
The screening continued for about three hours as participants moved through the clinical stations. Tolu Alade, VSF’s Programme Officer, welcomed the women and introduced the purpose of the outreach. She worked alongside Tayo Fagbemi, Assistant Programme Officer, the medical team and volunteers who supported registration, participant coordination, screening and distribution.
A wider maternal health challenge
The outreach reflects a wider challenge in maternal healthcare: knowing when to seek help and being able to obtain it are different things. VSF addresses both through community education and individual financial and practical support, working alongside healthcare providers who remain responsible for clinical assessment and treatment.
VSF’s response is built around two core programmes. The Safe Births Initiative provides community education, access to basic screening and links to health services. The Smile Motherhood Programme offers direct support to women facing complex or higher-risk pregnancies and to women unable to meet hospital bills. Its full maternity pathway can run from four months of antenatal support to six weeks after birth, making it the organisation’s most resource-intensive programme.
The distinction matters. Community outreach can reach larger numbers at a lower cost per participant, while sustained maternity support requires repeated coordination, medical expenditure and follow-up for an individual woman. VSF reports these forms of support separately rather than treating attendance at an outreach as equivalent to continued clinical or financial assistance.
An organisation built from lived experience
VSF was founded by Sade Adesakin following a 15-year experience of infertility, miscarriage and stillbirth. Registered in Nigeria in 2019, the organisation is governed by trustees and delivered locally by a programme team led operationally by Tolu Alade, Programme Officer, with Tayo Fagbemi serving as Assistant Programme Officer. Their work is reinforced by medical personnel and a strong volunteer network that supports mobilisation, logistics, beneficiary contact and community delivery. VSF’s records identify 73 women supported through the Smile Motherhood Programme, including one mother who had twins.
As at September 2026, VSF reports 17 sensitisation programmes in its updated register. This is a count of events. The Foundation is consolidating cumulative participant figures and does not equate an outreach attendance with months of individual maternity support.
VSF has also undertaken work in Lagos through Her Tomorrow Matters, a complementary initiative developed following engagement with the Lagos State Ministry of Health on the needs of pregnant and parenting girls. Its sensitisation pilot and subsequent support for individual young mothers sit within the Foundation’s wider maternal health mission.
VSF has developed working relationships across the health and public sector, including the Ondo State Ministry of Health, the Ondo State Primary Health Care Development Agency, the Hospital Management Board and Mother and Child Hospital in Akure. The organisation says these relationships support community mobilisation, referral and delivery, while its legal and compliance records include CAC incorporation, SCUML registration and registration with the Ondo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.
For VSF, the next stage is to deepen this model within Ondo: support more women through complex maternity journeys, reach additional communities through prevention work and strengthen the local teams that connect both. The Foundation is seeking longer-term partnerships to sustain that work and build an institution whose service continues beyond its founder.
Further information www.victoriassmilefoundation.com | info@victoriassmilefoundation.com
