DONATIONHEALTHCAREIMPACT STORIESNgala SchoolReach ProjectVeritas Academy
Dear Child Scholars Donor,
Our fiscal year ends July 31st. I am sitting in my office at the end of a busy clinic day writing this newsletter. “Child Scholars has surely come a long way”, I quietly contemplate to myself. We have been so genuinely helped by God.
Earlier in the day I called Morenike Adams, our esteemed Nigeria based Child Scholars coordinator and told her I would be writing this month’s newsletter. She beamed with much excitement about the news. Morenike has helped bring structure to our communication and operations in Nigeria, Kenya, and the Philippines. She routinely hosts meetings virtually with our Child Scholars directors to document updates and plans for each month. She then communicates these plans eloquently with all our friends and partners through these lovely newsletters.
Before Morenike joined Child Scholars, our friends would have to wait months till they got on a call with me as I simultaneously worked ridiculous hours as a medical student on rotations, or during my brand-new physician years in residency. She celebrated her birthday this month and I want to wish her a happy birthday.
My goal with today’s newsletter is to say thank you to everyone who has participated as a volunteer, a prayer partner, or a financial contributor this year. I would like to highlight a few people who have gone above and beyond to help us this year.
First, I want to say thank you to our entire board. Each member of the board has brought unique ideas and giftings to help us advance as an organization. We could never have come this far without the unimaginable support and dedication of our US Director of Operations; who is the love of my life. Kaylee, thank you.
I especially want to recognize my dear sister Ruth Makinde who has helped with our taxes and orchestrated our financial compliance. She finds time during her very unforgiving schedule to help provide the board with updated financial projections and has helped spur us to fundraising action. Dr. Eddie and Renee Brown, who have been part of our team for maybe what seems like a century now, and by that, I mean over a decade, have been involved in painstakingly developing a school curriculum for Child Scholars and have been making incredible progress. Their contribution to our team cannot be overemphasized.
Next, I want to say thank you to Dr. Jonathan Burden. When his wife Kailana came to see me in the clinic one fateful day in 2022, I thought she was visiting because she had a medical complaint. Instead, she looked pointedly at me and said to me, “I want to hear about Child Scholars, and I would like to get involved”. I inquired if this was the reason she was here to see me in the clinic. She paused for a brief second and uttered a very emphatically “Yea”. Since that time, Kailana and her husband have been integral members of Child Scholars and have helped us expand our reach to the Philippines.
We now have several Child Scholars in the Philippines who have access to education this year because of Jon and Kailana. Maybe one day, and I mean very soon, we may build a school there. Dreams do come true!
Two very radical Child Scholars champions and financiers I want to publicly acknowledge are Sarah Dephillips and Jessica LeNoue. They both have been contributing to our work consistently monthly for over a decade. They are crazy believers in this work. They have been such wonderful friends with incredibly generous hearts. They have encouraged and inspired me deeply.
Another individual who has now become a friend, Mr. Quisenberry, visited me and surprised Child Scholars with such a breathtaking amount of money. I thought he was making a huge mistake and that he did not really need to donate that much money. But then I remembered all the projects we were undertaking and quickly accepted the donation with thanksgiving. I don’t even know how he heard of Child Scholars.
Recently our dear friend Jonathan Harrison hosted a birthday party fundraiser at his home and invited some of our friends. We had over 100 people in attendance and we raised over $8000. It was a great time to share about the work we are accomplishing at Child Scholars. The mere fact that it was planned with extremely short notice makes our success that evening even more commendable.
In keeping with our dream to bring wellness to communities and given my unique role as a physician, we adopted Nidus Aquilae Hospital into our care. In addition, I have been serving as their medical director since January 2024. This past fiscal year, we spent significant financial resources on keeping the hospital front doors open. In fact, I would be writing dishonestly if I opine that managing this hospital has not been without its own unique and occasionally overwhelming financial challenges.
Because of your generosity, we recently hired an assistant medical director, Dr. Frank Chiwuzoh, who has been working to help provide more direct supervision of the work. I have continued to lead weekly C-suite meetings at 12 am PST on Friday mornings (8 am Nigerian time) as we have continued to allocate very scarce resources to meet patients’ needs while still paying modest wages.
At this juncture I want to express a heartfelt thank you to Westside Christian Fellowship and to the legendary Dr. Tim Powell, outgoing CEO at Evergreen, and Kathy Powell. In April, Nidus Aquila Hospital was in a very tough spot financially and needed to pay the salaries of the doctors and nurses. Due to local increases in operating costs caused by the Iran war, low revenue at the hospital coupled with IRS stipulated limitations on personal donations that prevented me from personally donating that month, we didn’t have enough funds to pay these healthcare workers who provide compassionate care to our patients. A phone call to Dr. Tim was all it took to unlock a few months of financial lifeline to help fund our Child Scholars bailout to the hospital to avert a potential financial disaster.
Looking forward to our new fiscal year, I have dreams. I would like to continue the great educational strides in these three regions we currently operate in and maximize our potential. In Nigeria, I would like to build a dormitory for the children to live on our premises now that we have security. And I would like to continue to improve our patient delivery at Nidus Aquilae Hospital. There are also much needed renovations and staffing challenges to address. I would like to begin preliminary plans for a mission trip by 2027 to take friends out to Nigeria and provide some assistance at the school and at the hospital.
I would like to see the development of our Biology and Physical Science curriculum. As for the Philippines, I would like to begin preliminary plans of building a Child Scholars School so all our learners can learn under one roof and with Child Scholars oversight. As for our work in Kenya, I would like to continue our work with the school for the deaf and maybe work to build an after-school learning center.
In conclusion, during this week Child Scholars at Veritas Academy celebrated their end of year party as they now transition to a new grade level in September. In the same light, it is also an end of the year party for us as a team of facilitators and well-wishers and as we transition to this new fiscal year, we step out unabashedly, to take a pivotal role in mapping out a path to a sustainable future for our organization. We have achieved so much together this year, and it has been made possible because some people were moved by the Lord and gave $10 and some others gave $20,000. The common thread that runs through it all is the heart of generosity. I would like us to continue building on these accomplishments. It’s been the honor of my life to lead this organization.
Sincerely,
Emmanuel Okenye
Founder, Child Scholars.
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