PROJECT_INSPIRE INTERVIEW WITH ONAH STANLEY

Only the strong grow beyond their pain to give hope to others. Our guest, Onah Stanley Chukwuemeka, is an education enthusiast who, despite growing up without a mother, has become today a beam of hope to orphans across southeastern Nigeria. Through his nonprofit, SWS Foundation, he runs a free private school for indigent children, and continuously decries occult activities in secondary schools and tertiary institutions. We are glad to have Stanley share with us his journey and aspirations.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: Can we meet you? Stanley: My name is Onah Stanley Chukwuemeka. I am 23 years old, a global peace ambassador, a human right activist, a poet, an educator, and an African child activist from Enugu State.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: Tell us briefly your childhood experience.
Stanley: As a child, I went through severe hardship. It was tough for me to live without a mother.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What’s your educational background?
  Stanley: I attended Community Primary School, Nwafor Uruagu, Nnewi, and Community Primary School, Odoru, Nsukka. I proceeded to Nsukka High School and Urban Boys Secondary School where I was made a senior prefect. I later moved to and graduated from Icon Contemporary Special College, Nsukka. I am currently a final-year student in the department of English and Literary Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What are your contributions towards making Nigeria a better place?
  Stanley: Owing to increase in the rate of violence and occult activities among young people in Nigeria coupled with the death of Kenechukwu, a secondary school friend who was an occultist, I started Standing With Stanley (SWS) Foundation with a vision of tackling the menace of the occult, and other social vice in secondary schools and tertiary institutions through education and empowerment. At SWS Foundation, we mentor young people to discover, develop, and achieve their potential. Through our support, repentant occultists have been able to renounce their membership of occult groups. As an African child activist, I am saving African children, especially the indigent ones, from illiteracy, poverty, and starvation.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What steps did you take to bring SWS Foundation to fruition?
Stanley: When I had the vision to start the SWS Foundation, I began with finding out how occult activities affect students in secondary schools and tertiary institutions. I visited different secondary schools in Nsukka and interviewed both students and teachers. After collecting the data, I started to raise funds from my contacts who saw what I had accomplished in the past, and they contributed massively. I also shared the vision with few friends of mine who were passionate about making an impact on their communities, and they bought into it. We later launched on- and offline campaigns to sensitize people to the dangers of violence and the role of quality parenting in resolving the problem. The campaigns received huge feedback, which made the local government chairman approve our first summit in 2017.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What have been your achievements?
  Stanley: SWS Foundation has made tremendous impacts on the lives of children, students, and the youth in general. I will share few of my achievements here because of time. We started a school (Prestige International School) for indigent children in Nsukka to allow them to have access to quality education without disruption. The school has grown to 54 students. Several orphanages have benefited from our SAVE THE AFRICAN CHILD PROJECT organised every 10th July, where we distribute clothes, food, and soap to children. We also get sponsors to pay for the children’s school fees and support their feeding. We collaborated with US-based Youth for Human Rights International to fight for the rights of the African child to freedom from abuse and exploitation, and also to educate children, teenagers, and adults on their fundamental rights. My contribution to the project impressed the organization that I was entrusted to distribute over 15,000 copies of its What-Are-Human-Rights? booklets in schools. Through our prison outreach, we have reached out to 375 and 346 inmates in Nsukka and Nnewi respectively where we distributed free copies of devotional and educational materials, food, and other essential items. These and more are what we have achieved so far.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What motivated you to do what you are doing?
Stanley: The drive to save indigent children from experiencing what I went through, the vision to leave the world better than I met it, and the desire to save another Kenechukwu from dying.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What has been your major challenge since you began your nonprofit?
Stanley: One major challenge is finance. The other challenge is getting more selfless individuals in a self-serving world like us who prefer impact to reward.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: Many young people have great ideas, but lack of funds is always a stumbling block. What’s your advice in this regard?
Stanley: One piece of advice for such people is that they should look within their contacts. To navigate through the financial challenge, one may have to seek assistance from people around, especially those who believe in what one is doing.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: How have you been able to raise money to implement your ideas?
Stanley: For me, raising money depends on the type of outreach I am preparing for. When I am working on or planning a project which will cost a huge amount of money, I source funds by writing to government officials, companies, and banks. For other projects which need fewer funds, I solicit financial assistance from my friends both on- and offline.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: Could you share with us one or two experience(s) you have had in the course of your campaign that has impacted on you?
  Stanley: Seeing young people renounce the occult and inmates make informed decisions not to return to crime give me no small amount of joy.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What are your prospects in the next 5 or 10 years?
Stanley: I want to have established more schools for indigent children across Enugu State so that they will have access to quality education which has been denied them by the system.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What do you think is the major cause of unemployment among the youth today, and how can we get over this?
  Stanley: There are many causes of unemployment in Nigeria today, but I will try to encapsulate them all with one word and that is COMPLACENCY (both in our leaders and in the youth). The youth should not be comfortable with where society has pigeonholed them or where the economic situation has confined them. They should refuse to be lazy, and work towards their dreams. The truth is that it may not be easy, but with persistence, it will surely work out.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: The final word for the Nigerian youth.
Stanley: Take advantage of any opportunity you have and invest in your future. Improve yourself with resources available to you. If you want to stand out in today’s competitive world, you must be equipped. As my pastor, Chris Oyakilome, would always say,

Success is impacting the world with the investment of your personality.

One more thing before I go: You cannot blame the system for your failure, you can only blame yourself.

Contact Details

Facebook: SWS Foundation 
Twitter: sws_foundation 
Instagram: officialstan4all,swsfoundation Email:standingwithstanley@gmail.com


PROJECT_INSPIRE: Thank you for sharing your story with us, and we do hope that many are inspired as they read.
  Stanley: The pleasure is mine.

  Many thanks to our editor: Pookers Literary and Editing World. www.pookers.com.ng
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