Ifeoma’s story
Ifeoma was a mentee on the Foundation's Mentoring Women in Business programme in 2019.

It takes a village to raise a child and I am proud to acknowledge the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women as one of the village that raised me!
Ifeoma Adibe-Chukwuka, who took part in the Foundation’s Mentoring programme last year, runs a social impact enterprise in Nigeria producing a line of high quality body care products. In this blog, she reflects on the boost the Mentoring Women in Business programme gave her business and how her distribution model enables her to empower hundreds of other women.
“It takes a village to raise a child” is a proverb that originated from the Nigerian Igbo culture where I come from – “Oran a azu nwa” – which means that it takes an entire community of people to raise a successful child. This proverb holds true for me and describes the significant role Cherie Blair Foundation has played in my life.
Omaness Skinfood is an impact-driven and indigenous beauty company in Nigeria with a mission to create body care products using naturally-active homegrown ingredients that nourishes the skin and enriches the lives of women. It is the first skinfood company in West Africa operating a one-of-a-kind women-powered business model which deliberately engages and enriches women from supply through impact sourcing down to the last mile of distribution by recruiting women to run their own business as independent resellers of our products. I was inspired to start this company two years ago because I believed I could harness our local resources to create a sustainable solution that would help increase the income and enrich the lives of low-income women in Nigeria.
I was first heard about Cherie Blair Foundation Mentoring Programme through a friend in 2018. At the time, I had just founded Omaness Skinfood. My background was in the non-profit sector and I had built up expertise working with low-income women and children for ten years. I felt a desire to venture out, because I realised that the model of charity intervention and offering handouts was not enough to help the women I worked with lift themselves out of poverty.
I saw an opportunity to start packaging and marketing the produce (shea butter, coconut oil, palm kernel oil) of some low-income artisan women and this helped increase the income for the women and their families. However, it was difficult scaling the business because we didn’t have a distribution system in place to reach more customers.
When I got accepted to become a Cherie Blair Foundation Mentee in 2019, I had just come up with a unique distribution model that would recruit women to start their own businesses and distribute our products across the country. I saw this as an opportunity to work on improving the distribution model and increasing awareness for my company.
Find out more about the Mentoring Women in Business programme
The Mentoring Women in Business programme is one of the Foundation's three flagship programmes, which also include HerVenture and the Road to Growth programme. The programme matches women entrepreneurs from low and middle income countries with professionals of any gender anywhere in the world.

Ifeoma is one of the 175,000 women entrepreneurs we’ve directly supported since the Foundation began.
In January 2020, we launched the ambitious mission to reach another 100,000 women, and by extension their families and communities, by the end of 2022. You can be part of this fantastic impact too: join our 100,000 Women Campaign as a partner, supporter or donor today!
Donate now Find out about the campaign
Discover more women entrepreneurs' stories:
-
The Power of Mentoring: Odunayo and Mireille’s story
Odunayo joined our Mentoring Women In Business programme in 2021 and was paired with her mentor Mireille. Here, they reflect on their mentoring relationship.
Read more
-
Susi’s story
Susi took part in all three of our flagship programmes through our WEAVE initiative. With our support, she turned her passion for Japanese food and culture into a thriving enterprise.
Read more
-
Quynh’s story
Our programmes were transformational for Quynh and her natural beauty product brand, supporting her to realise her dreams of creating a healthier, more sustainable planet.
Read more