Giving Back to Community Corporation, an Elmont-based nonprofit founded by Emilian Emeagwali, recently ventured on a three-week charitable mission to help donate to schoolchildren in Nigeria. The group left on Dec. 13th and stayed there shortly after the New Year, making their journey back home on Jan. 4th.
During the trip, 10 other volunteers from the organization were part of the group, including Emeagwali’s daughter, Nneka, and three sons, Olisa, Buchi and Chuka. The nonprofit’s efforts have deeply impacted communities in Nigeria and transformed the lives of volunteers and those they have helped.
Books, cookies and juice boxes were distributed to children at Ogboli Primary School in Onitsha, a city on the eastern bank of the Niger River, in Anambra State, Nigeria. Many of the volunteers later described the experience as heartfelt as they watched pure joy fill the children’s faces.
“Everyone is always so grateful and so excited, especially the kids,” Buchi, 25, who has visited Nigeria a total of five times, twice as a volunteer, said. “This is something that my mom has loved and has dreamed of doing for so long, and so to see the process, you know, get more organized and have like a more streamlined effect on the community.”
The group spent the first two days in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, before they ventured south to Onitsha, Emeagwali’s hometown, where they distributed toys and supplies to the children.
They spent their last few days of the trip in Lagos, as well as other parts of Nigeria.
Chuka, 32, has traveled to Nigeria six times, but the most recent journey marked his first time traveling with the organization to give back. He went to Nigeria for the first time when he was 8, and this past trip was his first in a decade.
“I saw a lot of development that changed throughout the time,” he said of the most recent trip, which, he added, meant a whole lot more to him. “I love the fact that I was able to give back to the less fortunate.”
Ogden Toussaint, a long-time friend of the Emeagwali family, first joined the group in 2023 for the trip to Nigeria. He described this past visit as culturally engaging, partaking in “a wide range of activities and different ways of life. We really got to spend a lot of time out there and really interact with the locals,” he added.
This marked Lordii Obas’s first trip to the country, appreciating both the “good and the bad” that come with every new environment. “They were accepting, just for other people coming into their culture, and to celebrate what they were having,” Obas said.
The name of the nonprofit, Giving Back to Community Corporation, with its roots in Elmont, has made a name for itself in Nigeria. The group’s name has meaning behind it, Obas explained, adding that just by witnessing the mindset of others who are deprived of basic necessities can really be humbling.
In addition to visiting Nigerian schools, the group stopped by orphanages, where volunteers met children in smaller groups, allowing for an intimate experience. Alana Lewis, another volunteer who joined the group for the first time in Nigeria, described the encounter with the children as much more personable, allowing her to chat and really connect with them.
When she first entered one of the orphanages, a little girl caught her eye, Lewis said. “As soon as we walked in, I just remember seeing the biggest smile on her face,” she explained. “That just really made me gravitate to her, and how happy she just looked to be getting these toys and seeing the food that we brought to them.”
One volunteer, Aliyaah Toussaint, said the recent three-week trip to Nigeria really resonated with her, relating it to her work as a legal assistant for a special education attorney, working with kids to help ensure that their educational needs are met.
It was her second time visiting Nigeria as a volunteer with the nonprofit, describing the many moments spent with the children as special.
“That was actually my favorite part of giving back, which was supplying children with toys,” she said. “We can take things for granted, but special moments like that mean so much for them.”
She also explained how the children prayed and sang for them, which ended up being a beautiful experience. “It honestly reminded me of what I’m doing,” she later added.
