The President of Uru Improvement Union, Uru Isi, Ogwa, Barr. Ken Emekowa has called on youths in the area to follow the footpaths of one of their sons in being open handed and contributing towards development of their community.
He made the call on the last day of the women’s wing meeting which took place at the community hall when a son of the soil, Real Estate and Agro farm entrepreneur, visited to encourage her mothers and wives through his Foundation.
The 2024 edition of the August meeting would remain an indelible one in the minds of Uru women in Isi Ogwa autonomous community, Mbaitoli LGA, Imo State. It was a day that the Uche Samankwe Foundation excited them with gifts of food materials-Rice, Tin tomatoes and salt.
Grappling with the challenge of eking out a living especially in this period of hardship the joy of the women knew no bounds. The Foundation had supplied the women on the last day of their 4 day August meeting 200 bags of Rice, 7 cartons of big size Tin tomatoes, and 10 bags of salt.
The president of Uru Women’s wing of UIU, Mrs. Kate Ohakam expressed gratitude to the donor describing the event as the first of its kind in the area. In her words, “this is something that we have never witnessed in this village and the entire community is very grateful for this”
According to the program manager of the Foundation, Mr. Chijioke Umunnakwe, the donation is in line with the efforts of the group’s mission statement which is “committed to uplifting the communities through charity, education, capacity building for a brighter, sustainable future’’.
The promoter of the Foundation, Samankwe , second child of a former President of the community, Chief Samuel Oguzie Nnodim (Okanumee),his dad was described as a chip of the old bloc especially in doling out generous handouts. He honed his business skill in Onitsha where he was born and bred.
Available information from an elder of the family, Dr. Afam Echi, indicates that in less than four months he has touched numerous lives and organizations, putting smiles on people’s faces. He contributed N1.5m and N1m to the on-going building of his village and transformer installation, respectively. His church, the African Methodist Episcopal,AME Zion Church was blessed with N1m while the Assemblies of God Church and St. Michael Anglican Church, Uru/Umuanu received N500k, respectively.
He also donated prize money of N1m to reactivate a football tournament previously instituted by his late father, Sam Nnodim. The Samankwe Unity Cup will be hosted coming December for town branches of the union. Nnodim also donated another N500k to be shared among the three cleanest kindreds in an annual clean up competition instituted by him.
The young business man is also reputed to have picked the hospital bills of many relations outside numerous generous cash handouts to the needy.
