Awe filled the air, on Friday when beneficiaries of the Ikechukwu Ezeugwu Foundation recounted the despondency and impoverished state they were in when surprisingly they were awarded the scholarships of the foundation with which they have been using to pay fees in their higher institutions.
The beneficiaries had gathered at the foundation office in Diamond Estate Enugu, to receive their 2023/2024 academic session cheques, when they recalled with emotions how they respectively became lucky beneficiaries of the endowment.
One of the beneficiaries and a fifth-year student of Radiography, Mr. Emmanuel Eze said that God sent Dr. Ikechukwu Ezeugwu to fulfill his dream of attaining a tertiary education.
According to Eze, “I had an interest in University education but I lost my father when I was in JSS2. After secondary school, I got a University admission but my mother could not afford it. She was crying when Hon. Ezeugwu came to succor. If not for Ikechukwu Ezeugwu I won’t be where I’m today. God has used him on me and God will continue to bless him and his family.”
Eze urged fellow recipients of the foundation magnanimity to remember to extend similar gesture if God bless them after their education.
Desmond Mamah said he is a fourth-year student of the same Radiography department in the University of Nigeria. He said he got the scholarship award in 2019 which he confessed has been very beneficial to him and his family. He prayed for continued growth and expansion of the foundation.
A widow, Mrs Stella Odoh came to represent her daughter, Uche Ohabuenyi, who is a final-year medical student and was unavoidably absent. She said: “I have benefited from this foundation, if not for them I would have died. My husband died when my children were all in school studying different professional courses.
“I broke down because I couldn’t cope with all my children in the school. I was crying when the foundation came to my relief. Ikechukwu Ezeugwu has been doing all these with the support of his wife and they will leave long.
“I urge all the beneficiaries who have graduated to come together as children of Ikechukwu Ezeugwu and his wife to support them and boost the foundation scholarship scheme.”
Responding, the Founder/CEO of the foundation, Dr. Ikechukwu Ezeugwu cautioned that anyone blessed by God should know that the the proceeds of his blessings are not meant for him and his immediate family alone.
“I want to encourage everyone that if I could make it, all of you can make it. My father was a Chief, he was not poor but had 28 children. I trekked four kilometers and rode on bicycle to go to school, yet I made it up to Ph.D, I later went to Harvard. Bear in mind that 95 percent of what you are is what you wanted to be” Ezeugwu mentored.
He urged the beneficiaries to utilize the opportunity very well by ensuring that they read in the school.
About 20 beneficiaries of the foundation scholarship scheme, drawn from different institutions and states of origin, received their cheques.
