A 25-year-old National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Bright Martins Ekong, has decided to use his renaming 10-month allowance to pay the school fees of 12-year-old Sokari Wealth from Junior Secondary School 1 (JSS 1) to Senior Secondary School 3 (SSS3).
Ekong, from Akwa Ibom State and a graduate of Chemistry from the University of Calabar (UNICAL), said he took the decision as a way of giving back to society as his pet project.
He explained that the family of the girl had been facing difficulties since their father’s death.
Wealth is a pupil of Community Secondary School, Bukuma Village in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State where Ekong is serving.
He said, “Sokari is brilliant, there is a need to encourage her because she has lost her father and the mother cannot afford to pay. It is risky to allow such a talent to waste.”
The corps member called on the government to make funding schools and educational development in the country a priority.
The mother of the beneficiary, Madam Sokari, thanked Ekong for the gesture.
She said, “Even though my children and I have been struggling to survive since my husband’s death, I never expected help to come from someone I had never met. This scholarship is a big relief for me. It has come when it is most needed.”