Philanthropist Aloysius Ihezie looks back on five years of Ihezie Foundation and its work.
Education is a major contributor to the long-term eradication of poverty”
MILTON KEYNES, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND, June 10, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Established in 2015, Ihezie Foundation has gone on to generously donate over a million educational books and textbooks both in the United Kingdom and Africa. Looking back, the charity's founder, Aloysius Ihezie, reflects on the organisation's early days as he and his team made their first huge donations, including an initial consignment of more than 750,000 books to Imo State in Nigeria.— Aloysius Ihezie
'Education is a major contributor to the long-term eradication of poverty,' explains Aloysius Ihezie, speaking from Ihezie Foundation's base in Milton Keynes UK, 'and, for the past five years, we've taken practical steps to do something about it.'
Ihezie Foundation founder Aloysius Ihezie boasts a lifelong interest in the value of education, both in terms of the overall betterment of people and for the vital role that it plays in helping to move them out of poverty. Upon establishing the Ihezie Foundation, Aloysius Ihezie soon promised to send vast numbers of carefully selected textbooks to Nigeria, the Republic of Liberia and Sierra Leone, he recalls. 'We quickly took an important first step in sending upwards of 765,000 books to Anambra State, Nigeria, in what would become the first consignment of many,' Aloysius explains.
According to Aloysius Ihezie, for many years, Nigeria failed to adequately invest in the basic educational needs of its fast-growing population. 'Back in 2015, a reported 10.5 million children were not attending school in the country,' reveals Mr Ihezie. Of those who were lucky enough to attend during early childhood, fewer than half would go on to secondary school, he reports. 'Even where children are lucky enough to attend school,' Mr Ihezie continues, 'in some of the poorer areas of Nigeria, as many as twenty children must share just one single textbook.'
Accordingly, Aloysius Ihezie and Ihezie Foundation set out to address this via the generous donation of hundreds of thousands of educational books and textbooks to Nigeria. Mr Ihezie also quickly put in place further plans to send many more books to Liberia, and Sierra Leone. 'Books provide the foundation from which all children gain knowledge, inspiration, and motivation,' said the London-based philanthropist at the time.
Firmly in the belief that providing appropriate and sufficient books enables underprivileged children to access learning, feel valued, and understand and recognise the link between education and positive change, since then, countless educational books have been donated to schools, universities, libraries, and other good causes both in Africa and the UK by Aloysius Ihezie and his team. 'Books are the basic tools of all education, inspiring children to read, learn, and stay in school,' suggests Mr. Ihezie.
'As such, we continue to deliver hundreds of thousands of books each year to schools, universities, and libraries around the world,' he adds, wrapping up, 'in the hope and belief that they'll further contribute toward the education of future generations of children worldwide.'
Caroline Hunter
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