Corps member donates 10-month allowance as scholarship to student

A 25-year-old National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Bright Martins Ekong, has decided to use his 10-month allowance to pay the school fees of one 12-year-old Sokari Wealth from JSS 1 to SSS3.

Ekong, from Akwa Ibom State and graduate of chemistry from the University of Calabar (Unical), said he surrendered his allowance as a way of giving back to society as his pet project.

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He explained that the family of the girl had been facing difficulties since their father’s death.

Wealth is a pupil of Community Secondary School, Bukuma village in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State where Ekong is serving.

He said, “Sokari is brilliant, there is need to encourage her because she has lost her father and the mother cannot afford to pay. It is risky to allow such a talent to waste.”

The corps member called on the government to make funding of schools and educational development in the country a priority.

The mother of the beneficiary, Madam Sokari, thanked Ekong for the gesture.

She said, “Even though my children and I have been struggling to survive since my husband’s death, I never expected help to come from someone I had never met. This scholarship is a big relief for me. It has come when it is most needed.”