A Maiduguri-based Daily Trust Unsung Hero, Barrister Zannah Mustapha, has bagged the CNN Heroes – Peace Builder 2020 award for his contributions to peace building and other charity project especially for children orphaned by a decade-long Boko Haram crisis in Borno state.
The philanthropist, who was a 2012 Daily Trust Unsung Hero, and a 2017 winner of the UNHCR NANSEN Refugees Award, among other international recognitions, founded his Future Prowess Islamic Foundation (FPIF) – a school that kicked off with only 36 orphans in 2007.
Our correspondent, who went round all branches of the school on Monday, reports that over 2,000 students – largely orphans and other vulnerable children in the society, are currently being provided with free education, feeding during breaks and a school bus and bicycles for boys to ease movement to school.
While commenting on the CNN Heroes award received, Barrister Mustapha said he was highly elated for the recognition his charity work had attracted in the international community, describing it as one of his fulfilled moments.
He narrated that when he started the charity projects 13 years ago, he never imagined it could attain such magnitude that it has now reached.
“So for me, whenever I do thing, I do it honestly. And that is the thing that has spurred the progress of the school,” he said.
A short text accompanying the CNN Video titled: ‘Peace Builder’ which introduces his emergence as one of the CNN Heroes 2020, reads: “Despite regional terrorism, kidnapping, murder and threats against area schools, Zannah Mustapha is educating children from both sides of Nigeria’s Boko Haram conflict, while also helping thousands of widows”.
