Couple mentors 1000 students in Lagos

For the past six years, Mr. and Mrs. Emma Nwachukwu have been working with thousands of young people in Lagos State, counseling them out of chaos to the path of success. Through a non-government organization, Polished Pillars Foundation, they hosted over 1000 teenagers in Lagos during this year’s free Teenagers Summer Retreat (TEESURE) to make these youngsters the best they can ever be.

The Chief Executive Officer of the foundation, Mrs. Chioma Emma-Nwachukwu, told our reporter that millions of young people in the country find themselves on the crossroads, where they are exposed to various tempting and ignoble choices. She stressed that without proper guidance and mentoring, these youths could stray from the right path into the wilderness of sin and crime.

Speaking with our reporter at this year’s retreat held at the Dansol High School, Agidingbi, Lagos, Mrs. Emma-Nwachukwu maintained that despite the numerous challenges facing the society, the foundation has remained committed to its mission of sowing the seed of hope in a season of hopelessness. According to her, the foundation has, in the past six years, sowed success into the life of dullards at school; prodding teenagers that once wrote themselves off as ‘never-do-wells’, to proudly wear the tag of agents of positive change and leaders of tomorrow. To her credit, some of these young people, who suffered repeated failures at school have been inspired to become brilliant stars after passing through the programmes of the foundation.

“We have recorded very encouraging success over the years. Some of these kids who joined us when they were in secondary school have gained admission into the university. One of them, Israel, couldn’t be admitted into the science class. It was at that point that he came to us. We encouraged him and made him believe that he could be the best. Today, he is an engineering student at the University of Benin. He came back to the foundation to work as a volunteer, to serve because of what he had benefitted,” she said.

Emma-Nwachukwu said her greatest satisfaction is to see positive changes in the life of teenagers who gradually rise from defeat to victory. According to her, this year’s programme which focused on the theme, “The Best I can Be,” was specially designed to challenge these youths to maximize their God-given potentials. “Polished Pillars Foundation focuses on building exemplary leaders in teenagers by integrating the virtues of character, faith, talent and resourcefulness based on Christian principles. We want to reach out to teenagers in Lagos and make them change agents,” she explained.

Recounting the success stories of the foundation, she said some students who had written the University Matriculation Examination (UME), several times but failed to get admission were able to succeed after passing through the educative and challenging sessions of the annual retreat.

“These children lack courage and motivation. We teach them to believe in themselves, to see challenges as stepping stones to greatness. Participating in this programme exposes them to real life issues,” she said. Some of the students who started as teenagers with the foundation, she said, have become volunteers after gaining admission into the university. “When we send these volunteers out there as the face of this foundation, they go about multiplying our efforts, touching many lives beyond our immediate reach.”

One of the participants, Olaokun Olabimpe, an NCE 1 student of Federal College of Education, Akoka, Lagos, said the programme has helped her to rediscover herself, as she could execute some tasks she initially thought too difficult.

“There is something God has deposited in each of us,” she said. “We need encouragement and support to bring it out. I participated for the first time last year and the theme was, ‘Stand Out.’ After the programme, I noticed that I was always unique in everything I did, especially at home and in the school. I can now write better. This year’s theme actually motivated me.” Olabimpe promised to take the message of hope to her fellow students after the programme, telling them that they, too, have the potential to become the best in everything they do.

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