The atmosphere at the Heroes Family Church Okpanam on Sunday 26th January, 2025, was one beyond normal service, it was one filled with organic excitement and jubilation when the Fostering Hopes Foundation announced a business support empowerment for three families.
This second edition of the empowerment programme has a man, Mr. Micah U., a father of two, doing grilling; a woman, Mrs. Patience O., a mother of four, doing cooking, and another woman; Mrs. Felicia M., a mother of two, doing water and drinks business.
Like always in the package of the empowerment, the three families received two hundred and fifty thousand naira (#250,000) each as business support while their children, eight of them have scholarship from creche to secondary school level.
The Founder and Coordinator of the Foundation, Nkechi Ukome said it gives her joy to see families lifted above poverty.
Speaking further, she said it was seriously challenging to start the Foundation but that she almost lost her peace when she couldn’t start.
Her words, “I feel so excited and blessed that I am doing this. The essence is to minimize the suffering of families and ensure that the children of the families thrive. The children are basic in all of this; and that is why we ensure that the children receive comprehensive scholarship, at least till when they are done with secondary education”, she joyfully said.
The Senior Pastor of Heroes Aglow Gospel Ministry a.k.a Heroes Family Church, Pastor Elvis Peters Uto whose platform was used for the empowerment, thanked, prayed and blessed Nkechi Ukome for her benevolence to the needy.
He said heavens would continue to record this act of kindness and magnanimity for her, insisting in his prophetic declaration, that her resources and well of joy would never dry.
For the collaborating NGO – Stand-Up for Women Society (SWS), the Chairperson, Comrade Mrs. Stella Macaulay commended Nkechi Ukome for the great humanitarian service she is rendering to society, praying that God would continue to empower her to cover more and more grounds.
She advised the beneficiaries to make good use of the seed so it can multiply for other beneficial uses that aid family and societal advancement.
Another witness NGO – Eye-On-The-Future Initiative, whose Executive Director was also at the maiden empowerment programme, Comrade Mrs. Josephine Omodor appreciated Nkechi Ukome for her kind gestures and pledged to continue to be of assistance to ensure that beneficiaries make good use of the opportunities gotten on a platter of gold.
So far, Fostering Hopes Foundation has empowered six families with 19 children on full scholarship until they are done with their secondary education. The first three families received fund and starter packs for their businesses while their children had been on scholarship since then. This is a Foundation that prioritizes “empowering communities, one family at a time”.