SKOPAI: A Beacon of Hope for Africa

By Chrysostom Onyekakeyah

St. Katherine Orthodox Project Africa Initiative (SKOPAI) is a nongovernmental organization aimed at curtailing the ever-extreme poverty ravaging Africa and especially Nigeria in particular. Thus, providing basic life amenities to the poor masses in typical villages and rural areas in fulfilment of her mission, vision, and overall statement of “adding value to life” and further providing structured solutions aimed at increasing the livelihood of vulnerable people in the communities (children, widows, widowers’, and youths, etc.). We believe in building a functional society that supports growth, development, wellness, tolerance, and peace. Perhaps. this organization does not discriminate on grounds of race, colour, language, religion, gender, or age, considering that all human beings are created in the image of the almighty God.

St. Katharine Orthodox Project Africa Initiative (SKOPAI) was born in January 2009 to fulfil the call of Jesus Christ to Peter to feed His Church out of love. SKOPIA was initiated by the Very Rev. Fr. Chrysostom Onyekakeyah to touch lives and reach out to humanity through fulfilling the Christian gospel message of Christ’s love in Africa, and we are currently present in Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Liberia, and Cameroun with her headquarters in Umuofor Owu Amakohia in Ikeduru local government, Imo State – Nigeria.

SKOPAI has, since her foundation and registration with the Nigerian government’s Corporate Affairs Commission, provided scholarships to many African children from basic education to tertiary institutions. We have also provided 24-hour borehole water supply and electricity through solar to many rural communities in Africa, as well as supplied food items and financial support routinely to various widows and widowers to start up a petty trading business, as well as to some orphanage homes to ease their lives and add value to them, etc.

Furthermore, the organization has successfully built an ultra-modern hospital to provide accessible, subsidized and easy-to-afford quality health-care services to the poor, improve livelihoods in rural regions, and create employment. SKOPAI also sponsors medical students from scratch in an accredited nursing school to raise organic health experts who can understand the problems of the local people easily and relate to them.

Perhaps, as an organization, she is poised to build a better, healthier spiritual and physical atmosphere for African children to grow, enjoy life, and become responsible humans as created in God’s own image. In light of that, we structured a praying group consisting of children and volunteered adults who gather mostly on Sunday evenings to pray for the world in distress, strengthening their faith through sincere worship and sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, youths from different parts of Africa have been empowered and sponsored in various skill acquisition programmes like sewing, fashion designing, agriculture, arts and crafts, and even supporting religious vocations over the years to present, as we keep track of their progress, providing both emotional and financial assistance where and when necessary. SKOPAI has not failed to care for the elderly men and women with a little help from her generous donors and sponsors, as well as their extended families, as a decent number of them are placed on weekly and monthly stipends for survival from hunger and hardship.

We are really aimed at adding value to the lives of the poor masses in our African society at large. We are committed, hardworking, and consistent in our quest to raise funds to achieve our good objectives, share love, and cultivate a true Christian faith in Jesus Christ.

Onyekakeyah writes from New York, United States can be reached at stkatherineprojectafrica@gmail.com