For former Beauty Queen and owner of Rikaoto By Me fashion brand, Maryam Elisha, it has been 16 years of relentless hard work to keep the foundation she launched after winning Miss Valentine in 2006 running smoothly.

“As young Beauty Queen back then, I wanted to do so much for the poor. So for my pet project, I started the foundation, Save Tomorrow Today Foundation’ but I found out that I can’t run it with only my personal fund. I started looking for sponsors and when sponsors were not coming like expected. I started looking for a business that would help me financially. This is part of the reason I became a designer,” she said.

To mark her birthday, the renowned fashion designer who has always loved to care for the less privileged and her team raised the sum of Four million naira ( 4,000,000) through the “SAVE TOMORROW TODAY FOUNDATION” for the upkeep of the less privilege children at the Destitute Home Okobaba.