When Ifeoluwa Anishe walks into a room filled with children living with cerebral palsy (CP), he sees more than medical diagnoses—he sees the strength of families holding on against impossible odds.
Recently in Ilorin when Kwara State joined the rest of the world to mark World Cerebral Palsy Day, Anishe spoke not as an organiser or founder of the Ifeoluwa Cerebral Palsy Initiative (ICPI), but as someone who has lived the struggle.
“It’s a daily fight against financial and emotional exhaustion,” he said quietly, recalling how, before ICPI began operations three years ago, desperate parents would travel as far as Lagos just to find therapy and support.
“Many sold property, others went into debt—just to keep their children alive and hopeful,” he said.
This year’s event, themed “Celebrating Diversity, Building Inclusion,” was co-hosted by ICPI and the Kwara State Government, which Anishe praised for its “unprecedented support” under Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
Experts at the event painted a grim economic picture: caring for a child with CP can cost between ₦14,000 and ₦37,000 a month, or up to ₦440,000 a year—a staggering sum in a state where one in five residents lives below the poverty line.
Kwara’s Commissioner for Social Development, Mariam Innah Fatimah-Imam, acknowledged that stigma remains the biggest barrier.
“Some mothers hide their children, others abandon them out of despair,” she said, revealing that the government has begun integrating CP awareness and support into public schools and enrolling affected children under health insurance schemes.
Physiotherapist Rasheedat Sholagbade reminded the audience that CP “isn’t a curse or contagious,” but a neurological condition that needs care, not fear.
Still, for families like those Anishe works with daily, survival is the real battle. Behind every therapy session and medical appointment lies a quiet heroism—parents who wake up each morning to fight poverty, prejudice, and pain in equal measure.
