My Faith In Humanity Restored

Good morning great people, I hope you all had a restful weekend. Once again, I apologise for my long absence on my blog. I've been up to my neck with work and little time for much else. Do bear with me for a while longer. 

Last week, my faith in humanity was restored by the amazing response of kindhearted Nigerians to an #AllHeartsAlways situation which arose. 

Last year, a young lady contacted me and requested for assistance. She was 18 years old at the time and had been through so much. Her mum and herself fled their abusive husband and father, who in turn, cut them off for daring to stand up to him after years of abuse. They fled to Ibadan and literarily went from grace to grass in their quest to stay alive. She was in a private university before they left her father and had to drop out as a result because her father refused to pay her fees unless he had full control of her. Herself and her mother have had to wait and clean tables in a small restaurant to survive. Things were rough especially as her mother also nursed a broken leg she received from the last beating her father gave to her.

At the time she contacted me, all she wanted was N12,000 to pay for their rent as the landlord was threatening to evict them. I sent some money to her for their rent and for her to get drugs and thankfully that was sorted at the time. I spoke with her several times and it was clear to me she has a good head on her shoulders.

Last week, she got in touch with me again in desperation. They had been struggling to eat for weeks because they lost their jobs at the restaurant. The restaurant had shut down due to slow business so they were asked to take a break till further notice. Her mother had had to sell off her personal items to keep them bothy surviving. All they've had to eat in the past week was gar, morning, afternoon and night.

I was gutted. I meant to send her money but then I gave it another thought and decided to put her story on my Twitter TL in order to help her get a more permanent solution to her situation. The responses to those tweets (follow the hashtag #AllHeartsAlways) were simply astounding. That same day, we raised N50,000 cash for her and got amazing offers to help her set up a business and also get back to university. Before I went to bed, that day, we had more or less secured a job for her with almost triple the wages she was earning previously and even more incredible was the willingness of her new employer to pay her in advance. 

She was in shock when I told her, as was I. She opened up to me about how depressed she had gotten and how she almost gave up totally just last week. I'm glad she held on and I want to use this chance to encourage all Nigerians to reach out to the needy and for the needy to reach out to others for help rather than get desperate and give up on life. I am truly grateful beyond words for all who chipped in to make her story a success yesterday. Thank you.

We are here again on the Ijagbo #AllHeartsAlways Scholarship for Senior Secondary students. It all started in 2012 when a corp member then, Mayowa @czarohm, tweeted the inability of some students to pay their school fee which costs one thousand Naira per term. We mobilized support online and a good number of people turned up to sponsor some of the wards through school, precisely 30 students. 

So far, this program/project has graduated 3 sets of these students from the school (Oyun Baptist High School OBHS Ijagbo) but recently we hit a ditch, sponsors are late in response as the economy hardship has taken its toll on people's finances. We currently have 6 students in SS3 and 5 in SS2 and they are starting their exam soon external exam, WAEC/NECO. 

The six students who must write their external exams are in need of N35,000 each to pay for these exams. I am hereby appealing to well-meaning people to come to their assistance and help raise the needed funds (N210,000) for these students. Getting children adequately educated is the best thing we can do for our collective future. Help us give these children hope and a new lease on life by supporting them with anything you've got.

Kindly send your donations to:

Bank: Ecobank
Account Name: Oyinkanola Mayowa
Account Number: 2771072535

Together, we can help raise the money for these brilliant students' examination fees. Remember that every little helps. 

Thank you.