Overview
Hello Friends,
The Angels’ Place (TAP) academy was the dream of my sister Mrs. Catherine Onyema Onyia (Facebook Page) after the death of her husband in 2006. A dream to see kids grow into successful young men and women, empowered by adequate education. A dream she set off to actualize asking for little in return. She invited me to join in this dream and I have never looked backed since I agreed. Unfortunately, my sister died in January 2016 from complications due to an undetected brain tumor, leaving behind 3 wonderful kids.
The Angels’ Place academy (Facebook Page), situated in Port Harcourt Nigeria, employs 12 teachers and provides quality education to 36 children for now. We would love to have more kids join us but unfortunately the school fees have been set the lowest reasonable amount to enable the school handle a quarter of the running costs while my wife Emily and I have been managing to take care of the remaining three-quarters. If we didn’t, the teachers’ paychecks and the rent for the building we use would be unaffordable.
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Our Vision
I was once like most of these kids who we admit at TAP academy. Coming from my humble beginnings, my journey to Italy for school where I met very wonderful people, my scholarship to study in the United States and now working in Silicon Hills (Austin Texas), it is my own little way of giving back to the society that couldn’t afford to give me much. I share in the dream of my deceased sister to enable kids blossom and attain great heights. I envisage tomorrow’s youth, who will spearhead innovations, challenge the world through ground breaking discoveries, shine the light of positive publicity on my roots and change minds about Africa.
At TAP academy, we are tapping into every iota of a kid’s potentials. we are laying building blocks for participation in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). We engage kids in extramural and other activities necessary to develop their nascent minds. We teach communication skills, problem analysis and solving techniques, foreign languages, crafts and more. We intend to introduce the older kids to fun ways of learning how to write codes (computer programs), how to build robots and develop their own homemade games to equip them for this technology age. It is our intention, for the future, to organize kid hackathons and robotic competitions.
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Challenges
Our aim is to reduce the school fees by 50% to avail admission to 100 more kids. But recently, we have hit HUGE hurdles:
- By September 2017, the kids in the 6th grade will be passing out. It is difficult getting new kids admitted because even with the current highly-subsidized school fees, most parent still cannot afford to register their children. If we can’t fill the vacant slots soon, then my wife and I must take up more bills.
- Soon after my sister passed on, the landlord of the building sued us to court, demanding that we quit the premises. Word around has it that there is a rich fellow who has put in a bid to buy the building. We filed a counter law suit asking that the court grant us time to move since our lease was still valid. The case is due to be decided and we don’t know which way it will go. Since the property isn’t ours, we still need to vacate the premises anyways.
My wife and I will never measure how much we have contributed to enriching the minds of these kids but we can only do so much. With 3 orphan adopted kids to take care of, mortgage, and miscellaneous bills, we are forced to make a difficult decision; to close the school for good come September 2017 (that is if the court even allows us stay till then). It is a difficult decision because not only are we developing minds for tomorrow, we are also providing gainful employment to very hardworking people who may not have a means of livelihood for a while, but we will have no choice if we cannot find help.
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Your Contribution
A major part of the solution is for the school to own its own building. This will enable the school to break even (no profit / no loss). We will then be able to cut the school fees by 50% to make education more affordable, employ and pay teachers. Currently, the school uses 7 classrooms, 1 computer lab and 1 science lab. We need your help to continue with the good we are doing and to keep the legacy of my sister alive.
We are looking to raise $56,873.50 to:
- Buy a piece of land.
- Build and equip 9 big rooms (7 classrooms, 1 computer lab and 1 science).
- Rent a temporary place while building is going on.
- Redesign and host our new website (It is unavailable now because we haven’t renewed the hosting fees).
We are seeking partners and donors. Help us continue to make a difference in the lives of these wonderful kids. Let us better equip them on how to attain self-sufficiency (teach them how to fish rather than give them fish). By so doing, we will try to change the world together, one kid at a time!
#RaisingAngels
