ISLAND NEWS, Monday, June 11, 2007

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40 UNDER 40 LAUNCH
An Islander’s vision at salvaging the less-privileged in society
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On May 18th, 2007, at the Lagos Motor Boat Club, a group of visionary Islanders launched a project designed to honour accomplished persons of Nigerian descent while simultaneously attaching such honorees to underprivileged children in a ‘mentor-mentees’ relationship tagged 40-UNDER-40 Nigeria, this initiative is the brainchild of Ufo-Atuanya, Managing Partner of Rimson Associates, a Victoria Island based firm who collaborated with Temple Productions and Sesame Public relations to birth the initiative.

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The board’s chairperson is the esteemed educationist, Professor (Mrs.) Grace Alele Williams who, along with other eminent Nigerians from within and abroad, attended the event. Also present at the occasion was Mrs. Jean Obi, coordinator of Nigerwives Braille Centre, Mrs. Ego Boyo of Ripples Fame and Nkiru Okoye, a versatile Afro-American pianist who flew in from Baltimore, United States of America. The glitzy occasions was co-sponsored by world leading networking giant, Cisco systems, which made a commitment to support the initiative with adequate funding for the next four years.

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Under the project, 40 top achievers of Nigerian descent who are below the age of 40 and have distinguished themselves through hard-work and integrity will be identified and honored. The program strives to replicate such accomplishments by matching the honorees with underprivileged children so as to create within the young ones, the spirit and confidence to excel.

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According to Eric-Atuanya, initiator of 40-under-40 Nigeria, “What shape the country will take tomorrow depends on the foundation we lay today. We owe it to ourselves, our children and future generations to develop an institutional framework to build and sustain a strong, trans parent Nigeria.” The organizers of the project will be working in collaboration with youth based charity groups to ensure that no child is left behind.
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They will also collaborate with the Cisco Networking Academy to train and certify underprivileged children on Information Technology Applications. The children will be selected from the Ovie Brune Youth Centre, Sponsor-A-Child Foundation and a few other sources.

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