33 years ago, The Ukraine-born mother housed 15 village children in her home and received their parents’ permission to teach literacy. However, she soon realized that these children, God’s heritage, needed more than alphabets and numbers to secure a future free of societal ills. She envisioned providing Lamo’s children with an emotional substitute for vices like drugs in sports, while encouraging them to spread what they learnt – including the Gospel – in their village. In Ukraine, Okwueze had been a fencing champion, and played basketball, soccer, swimming and tennis at top competitive levels.
Through her outreach, over 100 children have learnt various sports.
Her small beginnings of teaching literacy and sports have yielded impressive results. Good Hope Garba, the eldest of the first 15 children in her home, passed his high school exams with distinctions, earned a scholarship to study International Relations at Lead City University, Ibadan, and won a campus-wide tennis tournament.
Okwueze’s ‘village evangelism’ model has spread to Jooro, Ilorin, with a vision to expand into more villages that need transformation.