By Lagos standards, a Friday morning event that was not a society wedding or celebrity birthday with the promise of choice good and liquor could not be expected to have a full house, but Mr and Mrs Billy Agha filled the Function suite of the High profile Oriental Hotel, Victoria island, Lagos to the brim celebrating the 10th year anniversary of the Joan Agha Foundation.
In the gathering were Reverend fathers and Reverend Sisters from the Catholic Church who had dedicated their lives to the service of humanity, Supporters of various NGO’s, members of the Catholic women society of Nigeria, Members of the board of trustees of the Joan Agha Foundation, representative of the Lagos State government, family, friends and numerous associates.
The Joan Agha Foundation is a non governmental organisation and was officially launched on July 9th, 2011.
The focus of the foundation amongst others in the last ten years has been to nurture and assist indigent brilliant students with educational scholarships, provide financial assistance to indigent women and members of the society and to extend financial assistance to young graduates who have Enterprise skills but lack the finances to establish small businesses of their choice.
Chairman of the BOT, Pastor Andy Otikr Obaro said,
” So much has been achieved in the past ten years. Looking at the programme, you know that the achievements could only have been through the help of God.”
Advertising guru, Sir Steve Omojafor was chairman of the occasion. As is his custom, he arrived long before the advertised 11;00 am kickoff time and sat patiently till the programme started about an hour and half later. A former Managing Director of Rosabel Advertising and also former chairman of Zenith bank plc, Steve Omojafor, who likes to be called Omo Jesu these days is a study in humility and simplicity and spends his retirement on charitable courses both in Nigeria and abroad.
He said,
” Mrs Joan Agha is a Lady, properly brought up. She is hard working, she has beliefs in how to make the world more equitable abd a better place for all. We are here to celebrate ten years of a vision that has changed lives. This was a cause that was put in place to empower the down trodden in the society. It’s completely unbelievable the amount of work that has been put into this foundation.
The foundation not only gives fish to people but they also teach people how to fish.
Sir Steve Omojafor later gave a lecture on philanthropy and the art of giving to others rounding up with a story of how on a Sunday in church he had given all the cash in his pocket to different causes so much so that he did not have a done left to buy his traditional Sunday papers. Standing in front of the newspaper stand scanning the headlines, somebody walked up to him and asked which newspapers he wanted and paid for them. Touching story.
The keynote address of the founder of the foundation, Mrs Joan Ezinne Agha was also the high point of the event.
She reeled out praises on individuals and organisations who had supported the vision, top on that list were BOT members and her husband Dr. Billy Agha on whom she showered encomiums of love for steadfastly supporting her these past ten years.
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