About Us

LYDIA WOMEN FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL was conceived in fulfillment of its founder Jane Hannah Francis‘ vow to intensify her charitable works and reach out to the underprivileged in the Nigerian society. She narrowly escaped death in a fatal accident. Her limb, according to the orthopedists, was to be amputated for her to survive, but her faith pulled her through. “I thought I was dreaming when my late husband Rev. Chukwuemeka Francis quoted to me, the orthopedists’ resolution to amputate my limb” – Jane H. Francis. Shortly afterwards, I slept and heard the voice of the LORD saying that I should fear not because I was going to work out of the Orthopedic Hospital with my two feet.

She got motivated and her faith was deployed to action and today she’s bouncing on her two feet. She got discharged from the hospital and after a few months of physiotherapy from home, she swung into action to enhance what she had been doing for charity by reaching out to more people in need.

She expanded from the previous act of reaching out to rural poor women in the church that her late husband presided over to a larger audience irrespective of tribe and religion. She equipped poor women with vocational skills such as bakery, tailoring, soap, and beads making etc and was able to provide for them “start-up capital” with donations she got from kindhearted individuals and proceeds from her Industrial printing business.

She went into the nooks and crannies only to discover that there was a huge deficit in basic education in Nigeria. After much consultation with her husband and people with like mind, there came the idea to offer scholarships to out-of-school children. But before she began operating in this capacity, she called up a luncheon where she used the opportunity to announce an additional focus area other than catering to rural poor women but also involving children, as well as to launch her book titled “THE GREAT REDEMPTION“.

In order for a seamless operation and in accordance with the government’s call for a better operating environment for NGOs, the Lydia Women Foundation International assumed a corporate identity. Today, it’s also known as the LYDIA JANE EMPOWERMENT FOUNDATION, and its corporate head office took off in Lagos, Nigeria.

Moving forward, Mrs. Francis saw the need to raise more funds for her project and to create more awareness for the foundation. This led her to attend workshops and seminars conducted by seasoned NGOs and civil society organizations. The aftermath was the establishment of the flagship project of the LWFI called “Putting Street Kids back to the Classroom“.

This initiative has projected the LWFI far and wide across Nigeria. The foundation has partnered with reputable corporate and public sector operators to contribute its quota towards the eradication of the “drop-out syndrome” that’s jeopardizing the development of children in Nigeria.

In the year 2015, LYDIA WOMEN FOUNDATION aka LYDIA JANE EMPOWERMENT FOUNDATION partnered with the The German Mission in Nigeria i.e. Office of the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Lagos State Government, State Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to conduct the first phase of the “Putting Street Kids back to the Classroom initiative“.

It was a memorable event that attracted over twenty corporate organizations, and over one hundred and eighty children were offered scholarships to acquire basic education.

The aforementioned initiative had a brief break due to the COVID-19 pandemic but has continued ever since the worldwide break was called off.

Our integrity has been acknowledged by our partners and the general public, and we have been decorated with a few awards and endorsements from the government and foreign missions performing activities in Nigeria. We will stop at nothing to ameliorate the living conditions of underprivileged members of our society.