Each One Aid One Foundation: The Uncommon Face Of Charity

In 2015 the United Nations General Assembly set up what is known today as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Her intention was to articulate a blueprint that will usher the world into a better and more sustainable future, for all, by the year 2030.
To achieve this lofty target a 17 point goal was outlined which include,no poverty,zero hunger,good health and well-being, quality education,gender equality, clean water and sanitation and many more.

One year later,precisely in 2016, another lofty foundation was conceived Each One Aid One Foundation.Registered in 2019 as a Non-Governmental, non-profit, non Political, non religious and non ethnic organization. EOAO has remained consitent in it’s mission of touching lives and building bridges.

Tailored in line with the sagely counsel of Desmond Tutu, “Do your little bit of good where you are: it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelms the world.” Each One Aid One seeks to provide humanitarian services to the vulnerable segments of the society. It will also create awareness on health as well as on critical sub sectors like education, livelihood and food security.The pivotal essence being to engender development, aid survival and stimulate meaningful participation of the highly marginalized but most critical sectors of the society.

The creation of Each one aid one is informed by certain set goals, which are both trans-formative and mission driven. One of which is where people are adequately equipped with the right skills, and their lives touched at the point of their felt needs.This is in line with the tenets of the global SDG goals.

Although EOAO is ubiquitous in nature, however, its activities are mainstreamed in tandem with the core mandates of the Sustainable Development Goal, which include the provision of Health, Education, Agriculture, Economic Empowerment and Shelter. Call them the vehicles ,if you like, because they convey the subsisting enablers like, livelihood support,household support, economic support,business support and palliatives .

So far, EOAO foundation has been roundly successfully. It has moved beyond the peripheral sense of “touching lives” to the core vision of giving life. Within its short time of existence it has left a profound impact on the lives of the people. Hardly is there any Local Government in Abia State where the generosity of EOAO has not been felt immeasurably.Even beyond the boundaries of Abia , the touch of the foundation has been robustly felt.

For instance in Health,EOAO has successfully embarked on free, community, medical outreach in all the 17 LGAs of Abia state.The key focus include, to write off medical bills for vulnerable families and individuals, Pay for major and minor surgical operations in hospitals , Carry out HIV/AIDS awareness campaign/advocacy annually, facilitate the sharing of ILLNs nets across communities, train youth champions on ASRH. ETC.

As part of her CSR activities, EOAO has also considered gray areas of interest, especially,on “clean water and sanitation campaign”. To that end, it has championed the clean hands hygiene sensitization programme across Abia state. It also distributed various kinds of palliatives and commodities to both primary and secondary health facilities across the state. During the covid-19 pandemic, the foundation supported the Government with a standby ambulance to reinforce the management of the covid-19 novel virus. It also cleaned and cleared dumps along major roads in Aba to encourage a clean environment.

EOAO policy on Education are quite laudable . It championed the donation of writing materials, school bags and school sandals to vulnerable pupils in public schools across the state. As at date the foundation has traversed the 17 local government areas of Abia state coordinating the registration of thousands of prospective candidates for the JAMB examination. Tagged “Project 3000”, EOAO has,inadvertently,albeit equitably, distributed wealth through educational empowerment. Like somebody rightly remarked, in few years time thousands of young professionals and technocrats, of all fields, would have emerged from the noble exercise called “Project 3000”. With thousand of indigent students whose school fees were paid, courtesy of Each One Aid One, Life will henceforth be meaningful to scores of disillusioned youths who had hitherto lost hope.

EOAO considers Economic support as very germane to capacity building and the overall development of our people hence it sponsored and supported 16 youths’ Entrepreneurs with various amounts of funding to enable them scale up their businesses. During the 1st Abia trade fair, also organized by EOAO, over 2000 petty traders across 30 markets. in Abia State, were empowered just as over 30 youths were provided with vehicles to enable them engage in transportation businesses.

EOAO foundation believes in zero hunger as advanced in the second, SDG 17,point agenda. No wonder it brought succor to the hapless in the society by providing food for them. Aside millions secretly fed on a daily basis ,EOAO also facilitated,in December(Christmas) 2020, a generous feeding of all the junior staff of the 17 local government areas in Abia state. Again, on the Easter of 2021, it repeated similar feat as thousands of Abia State civil servants, across the MDAs, were also fed with cows ,rice and basic food condiments.
Life is harsh,they say,but in humanitarianism succor is restored. So, when Each One Aids One,life will become more meaningful and the dream of an egalitarian society, where equal rights and opportunities subsist,may be achieved.

No wonder, regardless of insidious distractions, the foundation is not relenting in advancing it’s avowed commitment towards changing lives. Currently, in all the 17 Local Government areas of Abia State, the operation Feed Abia Campaign is ongoing . Under this gestures, indigent farmers are provided with bags of Fertilizers, improved Maize Seedlings , Cassava Stems as well as some cash support to aid their farming.

The generosity of Engr.Sir Enyinnaya Nwafor,the visionary founder and sponsor of Each One Aid One Foundation,is underscored by his perception about life which stems from his sound upbringing and conviction that poverty is a disease that is curable.

Majority of Abians,therefore,attest that Nana represents that uncommon face of charity laced with audacious philanthropy. With him and few others, like him, the vicissitudes of life may become sublime.

Like Mother Theresa opined, “If you can’t feed a hundred people,then feed just one.” Nana seems to have exceeded that bar!

Elder Kennedy Okechukwu Onyenma writes from Umuahia, Abia State.