Nigerian Cooking Class This July the Okenyes taught a Nigerian cooking class as a fundraiser. We auctioned the class as a donation item at Geneva Academy, a Christian School in Roseburg, Oregon.

Public school is not free in Nigeria. Lee University alum Emmanuel Okenye experienced this firsthand while growing up in the town of Ikorodu, and he often had to skip meals in order to pay for his education. Years later, in an effort to offer better education and health care to children in Nigeria, Okenye started the nonprofit Child Scholars shortly after he graduated from Lee.

When he was growing up in Nigeria, Emmanuel Okenye, OMS III, says his family’s grocery money was often spent on his and his siblings’ schooling. Okenye vowed that if he got into college someday, he would find a way to help kids living in poverty go to school.