KECHI’S NEW DAWN

In 2005, Nigerians received terrible news after a Sosoliso Airplane carrying 109 passengers crashed, killing almost all of it passengers immediately. Today, only two passengers on that fateful flight live to tell the story.

Kechi Okwuchi is one of them. Kechi was a student at the Loyola Jesuit College and was travelling with her other school mates when the crash happened. Though she survived, she sustained 70% burns on her body and remained in a coma for a month.

Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Nigeria, took on the funding for Kechi from the time of the crash until she left for the United States in 2007. Being a minor under the age of 18, she had access to free medical health care in the US and she was admitted in the Shriners  Chidlren’s  Hospital, Galveston Texas, USA. Shriners Hospital specializes in the treatment of burns resulting from various forms of accidents for children. Children, according to the hospital’s policy, are people under the age of 18. However, the hospital, of their own discretion, decided to extend Kechi’s treatment to what has now become 3 more years. 

 Today 6 years later Kechi has undergone about a hundred different surgeries. These surgeries range from skin grafts to reconstructive surgeries.

However Kechi Okwuchi has now turned 21. According to the United States Government, she is now a legal adult. As a result she would no longer be a patient of Shriners Children’s Hospital. Shriners hospital has been kind enough to complete the surgeries they have begun. But there is still a long way to go

Kechi Okwuchi needs our help to complete all her reconstructive surgeries.  A fundraiser will be held today to in honour of and for the purpose of raising funds for surgeries for her.

Please visit www.kechiokwuchifundraiser.com for more information. Most importantly please make a donation no matter how little it may be.

God bless

TyF

30th July 2011

A 9-YEAR-OLD’S BIRTHDAY WISH

I was conducting my daily yahoo news search (for some reason I’m addicted to yahoo news and I religiously open my yahoo page daily).  Today I came across one of the most touching stories i have ever read.The story of Nine-year-old Rachel Beckwith who died after a car accident last week Wednesday. While her death is very sad, the legacy she left behind is one that is truly amazing.

Rachel celebrated her 9^th Birthday on the 2^nd of June and she had a very interesting birthday wish. She requested that no one give her a birthday gift, instead cash donations should be given  for the non profit charity: water organisation (an organisation set up to provide clean drinking water in some African communities).

Rachel apparently found out about this charity, and decided to use her birthday to raise her a cash donation as her contribution to helping those in need. In her words she said "I found out that millions of people don't live to see their 5th birthday, and why? Because they don’t have access to clean, safe water so I'm celebrating my birthday like never before. I'm asking from everyone I know to donate to my campaign instead of gifts for my birthday. Every penny of the money raised will go directly to fund freshwater projects in developing nations."

Her goal was to raise $300 by the time her birthday came, while she didn’t achieve this, she was certainly close as she was able to raise $220, and thereafter she shut down the page.  Unfortunately Rachel was involved in car accident that claimed her life just about a month after her birthday. Rachel’s death came as a shock to her parents,  but the buzz her page created has given them a reason to smile.

After her death her Pastor revived the donation page she earlier opened,  and publicized it on the churches website. Today, this has created not just a buzz but more than 9000 contributors totalling up to $368,000.  Rachel's goal has definitely been surpassed more than 1,000 times over. As news of Rachel's cause spread, more and more people found and donated to Rachel's page, many leaving personal comments about how touched they were by her selflessness.

Many questions came to mind as I read this story. One thing that caught my attention was her age, Rachel was just nine. At nine am sure I was looking forward to my birthday party, the cake, numerous gifts, being the centre of attraction etc. That Rachel could at such a young age, be so concerned and compassionate about people who are miles away from her and also  decide to sacrifice her birthday for it is outstanding.

I am definitely touched by this selfless act of compassion from a little child and I know she must be smiling from heaven as she sees the ocean of love and donations her request has prompted.

But much more than that this story goes to show how one tiny act can bring about the greater good of others. We see needs all around us every day, what do about it, how do we try to help? Sometimes it seems we think we need to have a billion naira to make a change. But as we have seen, one step, a little faith, one seemingly insignificant act, can make a difference.

Rachel has done her part and even though she passed on at the age of nine her impact is phenomenal.

Rachel's mother Samantha Paul posted on Monday that she was in "awe" of the flood of support. "In the face of unexplainable pain you have provided undeniable hope," she wrote.

Let’s also begin to impact our world by the tiny acts of compassion we carry out. There is so much to be done and there is so much more we can do. Rachel simply had a birthday wish, what is your wish?

Yours  in Love

Toyin Fajj

28^th July, 2011

GETTING OUT OF YOUR PRIVATE PRISON

I read this on Dr Boyce Watkins blog and found it very thought provoking, so i decided to share.

Refuse to remain imprisoned, Get Out and STAY OUT!

Most of us are just a step away from being incarcerated, or have yet to understand what it truly means to be free.

Some think that exoneration from confinement is defined as being physically released from custody and never being arrested again. While this is certainly an important part of the process, freedom is a multi-layered continuum, and the truth is that many of us are actually in prison ourselves. If an allegedly free man is left in a situation where he has no options, then he isn’t much more liberated than a slave.

A man or woman can be physically free, but not mentally, spiritually or economically free. While a vast prison system threatens our liberty, the world presents a plethora of opportunities for people to keep their minds bound by ignorance perpetuated through , limiting environments,  unwholesome relationships, media, unhealthy cultural influences, or an addiction to anti-intellectualism and financial irresponsibility. So, as we all fight to protect and save brothers and sisters who’ve been kept behind by disproportionate systems of punishment, we must all be unified in understanding that all of us must find a way out of our own private prisons.

The first step toward finding your personal freedom is to accept the idea that struggle is typically the only path to growth. Nearly everything worth having is difficult to obtain, so if you do not embrace the struggle, then you are not truly committed to the progress you claim to seek.  Like a man planning to win an Olympic gold medal while eating chocolate doughnuts every day. Our actions must be consistent with our objectives, and we must realize that obtaining our liberty typically comes at a tremendous price.

A second step is to become committed to independent, courageous and creative thinking. Rather than doing things because everyone else is doing them, we should engage in actions and activities because they help us get what we want out of life. There are millions of people who see nothing wrong with watching television for eight hours a day, running to the club on Friday nights, sleeping with people they barely know and doing all kinds of things while never noticing that their choices are merely reflections of pre-defined influences that they’ve been unconsciously persuaded to emulate. This is not to judge or condemn the choices we make. It is to encourage all of us to take a second to question why we do what we do every day.

Third, there’s nothing wrong with hard work and sacrifice. Infact only those who commit to it become lifes true successes. We must embrace and encourage the idea of hard work and support those who push the limits of their capability.

The bottom line is that all of us are in a prison of our own making (I seek to identify and confront my own prisons every day). There’s always a dream we think we can’t fulfill, a habit we believe we’ll never break, or a choice we’re taught that we have to make. In many cases, we even lack the self-awareness to notice the shape of our prison or how to get out of it. We need to realize that we are prison inmates and release ourselves from our individual prisons.

(This Article has been edited by me. To read the original article visit http://drboycewatkins.youngblackstudents.com/?p=332)

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a professor at Syracuse University and the founder of the Your Black World Coalition.

TyF

Get Out & STAY OUT

2Oth July 2011