eunice ortom

Profile of the Founder, Eunice Spring of Life Foundation, Dr Eunice E. Ortom

Dr. Eunice Erdoo Ortom,  the Founder/Chairperson, Eunice Spring of Life Foundation-ESLF is a development administrator, humanitarian aid worker, gender expert and civil servant with over 15 years’ experience. Her career in community development revolves around rural/urban livelihoods, HIV/AIDs and Vulnerable Children (VCs). Over these years, Mrs Ortom served in different capacities across Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government as well as in the non-governmental sector. Among others, Dr Ortom is passionate about health systems strengthening and promoting the economic self-reliance of women and youth.

Also an entrepreneur, Dr Ortom has a rich vein of experience and capacity in the management of micro, small and medium enterprises having been engaged in the agriculture value chain for over 20 years. Currently, Dr Eunice Ortom manages social enterprises in the sectors of arable farming, agro processing and trading with the key objective of addressing the societal challenge of unemployment. This, she is doing by engaging women and youth to provide direct labour thus, putting money directly in their hands. Ultimately, addressing poverty is her overarching goal.

Leveraging on her position as the Wife of the Executive Governor of Benue State, Dr Ortom has championed the cause of increased female participation in leadership and decision making space. A key outcome of her work is that 7 of 23 Local Government chairmanship positions are currently occupied by women, the highest since the creation of Benue State over 40 years ago. In addition, ESLF’s Founder has facilitated the process leading to a commitment by the Benue State Government to increase budgetary allocation to HIV/AIDs interventions in the State. This is in line with her commitment to supporting the mobilization of domestic resources for HIV/AIDs interventions. This is in addition to her advocacy for increased State funding of health, education and economic development programmes

Born on August 27, 1972, Eunice Ortom obtained her First School Leaving Certificate in 1983 at Nativity Private School, Makurdi where after she proceeded to Queen of the Rosary Secondary School Gboko. Here, she studied for and obtained the General Certificate of Education in 1988. In her quest for continued self-development, Dr Ortom studied for and obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree (B.Sc) in International Relations from Nigeria’s foremost ivory tower, the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1997. On completing the mandatory National Youth Service Programme in 1999 where she supported with administrative duties at the Benue State University, Makurdi, she enrolled for and obtained the degree of Master of Science (M.Sc) in International Relations and Strategic Studies from the same university of her service, in 2004. In 2015, having fulfilled the requirements, was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in Political Science by the Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria.