Beneficiary mothers and their children have gathered at Manuex Amusement Park in Akure for a Christmas celebration organised by Victoria’s Smile Foundation (VSF), a Nigerian maternal health organisation that supports women through difficult pregnancies and the transition into early motherhood.
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.
Children used the park’s rides and took part in activities while their mothers relaxed, met other beneficiaries and shared the occasion. Food and refreshments were provided. For many of the families, the event created a different setting from the hospitals and maternity services through which they had first encountered the Foundation.
The gathering also reflected the Foundation’s continuing relationship with beneficiary families. After a difficult pregnancy, a mother may still need practical help, reassurance and a community in which she and her child feel included. The celebration offered time together beyond the setting of a hospital appointment.
VSF used the Christmas event to maintain contact with families and strengthen a community among women who had received support. It also gave the organisation an opportunity to recognise donors, partners, staff and volunteers whose contributions fund and deliver its work.
Support through a complex maternity journey
The Foundation’s main direct-support programme is Smile Motherhood. It serves women facing complex or higher-risk pregnancies and women struggling to meet hospital bills. Depending on the pathway, assistance can include medical expenses, nutritional support, hospital bags, coordination with providers and contact through pregnancy and after birth.
The full maternity pathway can begin four months before delivery and continue for six weeks postpartum. That duration, combined with the cost and complexity of individual cases, makes Smile Motherhood VSF’s most resource-intensive programme.
In its September 2026 update, VSF confirms 73 women supported, including one mother who had twins. These are women receiving individual support, rather than a tally of babies or outreach participants. The Foundation’s experience also includes pregnancy and neonatal losses, making continued support and careful outcome reporting important parts of its work.
From lived experience to an operating institution
VSF was founded by Sade Adesakin after a 15-year experience of infertility, miscarriage and stillbirth. Registered in Nigeria in 2019, it has developed from a founder-led response into an organisation governed by trustees. Local programme delivery is coordinated by Tolu Alade, Programme Officer, and Tayo Fagbemi, Assistant Programme Officer, working with medical personnel and a strong volunteer network that supports mobilisation, logistics, beneficiary contact and community delivery.
Its second core programme, the Safe Births Initiative, takes maternal health education and access to basic screening into communities. VSF’s updated register records 17 sensitisation programmes through September 2026. This later organisational update is separate from the Christmas event held in December 2024.
Alongside its two core programmes, VSF has developed partnerships that support family wellbeing after birth. Calledo Africa Foundation works with VSF on the Children’s Prosperity Network, covering primary-school sponsorship, school supplies and mentorship. The Wealthy Foundation is also an NGO partner. Her Tomorrow Matters provides a complementary response to the needs of pregnant and parenting girls.
VSF’s institutional relationships include health and government bodies in Ondo State, while its compliance record includes CAC incorporation, SCUML registration and registration with the Ondo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. These structures matter to an organisation handling beneficiary information, medical support, donations and relationships with public services.
The Manuex gathering captured the human result of that wider system. Mothers who had met VSF at vulnerable points in their lives returned with their children for a day defined by play and companionship. The celebration did not replace the organisation’s support for access to clinical care; it showed what continuity can look like after the immediate crisis has passed.
The Foundation’s longer-term ambition is to build an organisation that can sustain these relationships across generations of families. Its immediate priority is to deepen its work in Ondo, strengthen the people and systems behind delivery, and develop partnerships that make support more dependable over time.
Further information www.victoriassmilefoundation.com | info@victoriassmilefoundation.com
