CHINEDU MARTIN ONUH. JAF SCHOLARSHIP BENEFICIARY

LETTER OF APPRECIATION

With a heart full of joy and appreciation, I write to offer my wholehearted gratitude to you, madam, and to all the board members of your great Foundation for the scholarship you have given me. I fervently thank God for your prodigious kindness and immense generosity to me; and I earnestly pray Him that He bless you all and your families abundantly.

In the same vein, I greatly appreciate the efforts of all those who are working with you and who worked in one way or the other to ensure that I receive the scholarship. Again, may the good Lord continue to pour His multiple blessings and divine favours in your lives that your cups may begin to overflow.

Thank you, madam; thank you dear board members; thank you all; God bless Joan Agha Foundation. Amen.

Yours faithfully,

Chinedu Martin Onuh.
08164417362.

MY MOMENTS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UYO

Dear Mummy, I am very pleased to share with you my first semester experience in the University of Uyo.

The University of Uyo is an educational institution which is widely recognised in Nigeria. It is located in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state and was established on October 1, 1991. It has 12 faculties and 76 departments including Mechanical Engineering which I study. My university has been my first choice because I believe that it has the ability to provide the quality education I needed.

On my arrival in the college, I felt very nervous because it was first day. I was determined to be the best in everything I was to do. At first I didn't know how to get to classes, I had to ask one student or the other about the building where I was to receive lectures. It was a very difficult day because I had to search for the school time table and locate the various lecture hall. At the ending of the day, I left school without attending a lecture. Time after time, I started coping with the school activities . During the first week, I had to present all my documents for the financial , departmental and faculty officers to sign before I proceed into the registration of courses . It was a bit stressful and time consuming because I had to queue for about to hours before it gets to my turn. I also purchased some text books necessary for my course, together with some writing and drawing materials and lab coat used in the laboratory to carry out practicals.

My stay at the college has really created a positive impact in my life. I saw a huge difference between secondary school and a higher institution. There I learnt listening skills and note taking which required more skills, focus and concentration. I also learnt how to make my own note and also effective studying skills. I spent most of my leisure hours in the library and attended night classes.

On the 16th of April marked our matriculation ceremony which went well. The vice-chancellor Prof. Mrs Comfort Ekpo disclosed in her speech that not fewer than 7691 students were admitted last year into the institution. The vice chancellor speech was followed by our declaration as a student. It was a very huge ceremony whereby Parents froms different home came to cheer up their celebrants. A week after the matriculation was , It was back to bussiness , we were given term papers and projects to do some research and submit at a given period of time. The test later came up and I put more effort in my studies. The test was followed up by the first semester examinations which was concluded with the physics examination. This is my experience in the first semester in the university.

Once again , Thank you Mummy for giving me the priviledge to be at this level of education. You are truely a blessing to Me and the nation. May the Lord continue to stregthen you and the Joan Agha Foundation as you continue to do his works.

-- Hope Camillus

JOAN AGHA FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP BENEFICIARY- Ifeanyi C. Onuegbu

THE JOAN’S LEGACY

A young man’s song. ,
What is life?
What is success?
What does it mean to know and love God in others especially people you barely know?

Well, that is JOAN’S LEGACY. Your talent is God gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. Your talent could be your God given abilities uniquely typical of you or your blessings in terms of financial strength and endowment.

Good day dear friends my name is Ifeanyi C. Onuegbu. I hail from ihitte Uboma local government area of Imo state Nigeria. Life means many things for so many people. Some say life means enjoyment, a journey, a phase, a riddle; some say life is a place we can serve our creator. But for me life meant nothing but pain, emptiness, frustration and bitterness. I was a bright child at a very young age… or at least I could say I was averagely above most of my pair. It went on so until I gained admission into the Lagos state university of Nigeria. So it was until the actual pain and reality of life started surfacing. “I used to think life was milk and honey.” first I lost my father and two years after my mother followed him to the great beyond making myself and 5 other of my siblings orphans at a very young age. I couldn’t continue with education as there was basically nowhere to get money to do so and yet maintain the home with the basic home requirement as kids. I thought of selling properties but we hadn’t any… my parents were not in the rich class of the economy so we could not boast of a car, land or business or anything else worth exchange for money.

It becomes most painful when age group mock you, bills pile up and psychological balance is lost. We were on our own!
We grew pail and really unkempt.
This reminds me of the Ghanaian Proverb that says “dogs don’t actually prefer bones to meat, it just that no one gives them meat” we were dogs in this case or maybe worse.

I started washing plates in restaurants for a 100 naira pay daily, sold pure water in traffic and later became a bus conductor...then it’s either touts beat you and collect the money you have made or after your whole sale for the day you might be unable to spell out any reasonable amount made.
As a conductor, today police may arrest you and your driver for incomplete papers or tomorrow LASTMA makes you pay for wrong parking and there is a third....... the vehicle could just become faulty for no particular reason and might make us not work at all for weeks.

I went out in search of Job but no one would give or offer any to a secondary school cert holder. Pay was worse than peanut in my area and if at all, was hard to come by. While this went on, I had already developed a severe chest pain, making me dependant on drugs. I felt the pain of life’s wipe flogging me.
This situation actually brought in a silly and selfish thought and yes I eventually considered “SUICIDE!!”
Thank God I was saved and counseled by a Catholic Priest Rev. Fr. Mike Emerue C.Ss.R who introduced me to a Foundation called Joan Agha foundation “JAF”

That man became the first God I saw in the midst of my Predicament.
The President of the Foundation after hearing my story shed tears. In amazement I watched as a drop fell from her eyes.
She reached for her handkerchief and wiped it. That was a heart of love. The real love Jesus preached.

Now for the first time in my whole life a woman who never knew me from Adam, Isn’t from my village or state or have I done anything for her before to deserve her kindness, wiped my rolling tears. She gave me a cheque and asked me to go back to school and obtain my bachelor degree as she wants better life for me. I never knew whether to kneel or cry, to jump and shout, to hug or to laugh. I never believed a being like her still exists in this world let alone Nigeria. This woman is Joan Agha the President/Founder of Joan Agha Foundation. She made me understand that her dream and vision was to make sure that the hope and aspiration of the under privileged in our society is not aborted. But it did not end there, she told me she will offer me free scholarship until I obtain Bachelor degree and to God be the glory, today I am a 300Level student of computer science at the Lagos State University. I kept asking myself, how many Nigerians will do this? Not for one child or two or five but for hundreds of children, widows, sick and most abandoned.