In 1988 after I graduated from high school, I was working at a Palm oil mill in my village, and we happened to go to this villages that is so remote to pick delivery of palm fruits. On reaching the community I was so surprised that there is a full-blown village in such a remote area because I thought it to be a farm settlement. I received the greatest shock of my life when the elders sitting on their village square (public gathering place) called “Ogo” in igbo, beckoned us to come. On getting to them, they asked who we are since they realized we are visitor.

My colleague mentioned his father’s name – Chief Dan Ogbuagu, they responded how is he doing, and turning to me, they said, you, who are you? I responded mentioning my father’s name Late Mr. Ukakwu Agwu. There was a shock and surprises on their faces and the next thing I heard is that I should come closer, that am their son, because my father touched their lives. They told me how my dad uses to come to the different villages in Abam and to their village taking children and registering them at schools, that my dad was one of the persons that made their wards to attend primary schools then. This made me cry, even as I write this, that my father touched their lives and he passed away 10 years ago that year and they still remember it. There and then I made a promise to myself, that I must touch peoples’ life wherever I find myself.  

In the year 2018, precisely the month of August there was this urge to go and help that came over me, then I remembered the incident of 1988, that led me and my wife to send a minister of God to visit Ndi Agwu village to know how they are faring. The news was so bad that we wept. The children in elementary six that will be moving to middle school for 2017 – 2018 academic year were unable to take the entrance examination because their parents cannot afford to pay for the Common Entrance Examination and First School Leaving Certificate Examination fees of N14,000.00 (Fourteen Thousand Naira) which is less than $50 per person. I and my wife pledged to take care of these children fees. In total we paid for 18 students for that school year. To worsen the situation at the primary school, their teachers are not paid as at when due, which impacts negatively on the quality of education that is given to these pupils.

Our goal is to keep this program running on a continual basis. In furtherance of making sure that these children with these bright and great talents are not abandoned to their own fate, we are giving scholarships to students from indigent families. Our focus is to expand this program to other remote communities where parents are finding life too difficult to make ends meet not to talk about sending their children to schools. We hope to be sending it stipends to the schoolteachers to encourage them. The IKE’s Foundation Inc. through its initiative and enhancement team, is developing a sustainable program that will encourage and empower youths and mothers of these pupils to becoming self-sufficient financially.