Ogunde Celebrates Birthday at Goshen Orphanage; Pledges Support for Outstanding Students.

 

Ogunde Celebrates Birthday at Goshen Orphanage;

Pledges Support for Outstanding Students

For the children and staff of Goshen Home & Orphanage,

Akute, Ogun State, Monday, May 29th 2017 will for a long

time remain memorable; not just because it marked Nigeria’s

Democracy Day or President Buhari-led administration’s

second anniversary but because the vulnerable children at the

home were treated to an elaborate birthday bash by one of

Nigeria’s amazons; a foremost educationist, Managing

Director at Goals & Ideas and Principal Partner at Edumark

Consult, Mrs Yinka Ogunde.

The celebrant, who came in the company of her husband,

Barrister Wemimo Ogunde (SAN), her children, siblings and

employees expressed great delight at the opportunity to share

the joy of her special day with the less privileged, stressing

that such vulnerable children need be showered with love,

even as they are encouraged and supported to reach their full

potential in spite of the loss or rejection they might have

suffered in time past.

The children at Goshen Home were also joined by the vibrant

and upward-mobile youths of Bestspring Foundation, Ijegun,

Ikotun in fulfilment of Mrs. Ogunde’s promise to visit them

when the students attended the 2017 edition of her annual

WATFON educational summit, which held in March at

Vintage Point, Ikeja.

Speaking on this occasion of his wife’s birthday, Barrister

Wemimo Ogunde recalled how that he suffered a major setback in his academics at the tender age of 12 due to the loss

of his mother.

“I was born into a polygamous family, the popular Pa Hubert

Ogunde dynasty. Unfortunately, my mother died when I was

12 years old, hence she did not even see me wear secondary

school uniform. As in every polygamous house, the mother is

the advocate for her children and she is the one to fight their

course before other contenders in the home. So, where she is

not there, the child is left to wander with no one to plead his

case before his father. And so, in my case, my mother was not

there to advocate for me and this of course marked the

beginning of my failure. I started failing at school because

there was no mother or father to check on me. My case was

indeed hopeless until God raised some destiny helpers to

counsel and mentor me. And that was how my life changed

for good and today, I am a foremost lawyer and Senior

Advocate of Nigeria”, narrated Ogunde.

The erudite lawyer therefore charged the children/youths not

to bemoan the loss of their parents or cling to their pain as an

excuse for failure. He urged them to rather make good use of

the opportunities and destiny helpers that God sends their way

and remain focused as they navigate through the hurdles of

life.

Corroborating this, his wife and celebrant, Mrs Yinka Ogunde

urged the children to look on the brighter side of life, stressing

that regardless of whatever situation or challenge that comes,

they can still get to the top. Recounting how she and her

siblings were raised by a single mother and how that in spite of the untold hardship all of them still turned out successful

and outstanding in their different careers, she urged all

vulnerable children to remain undeterred, work hard and put

their trust in God who is able to see them through.

She also charged well-meaning Nigerians to invest their time

and resources towards helping less privileged children achieve

their dream through provision of educational scholarship,

mentorship and welfare support.

She promised to support those of that emerge with excellent

result at the just concluded WAEC.

While commending the amazing work and dedication of Mrs.

Aramide Oikelome, the Executive Director of Goshen

Orphanage and Bestspring Foundation in nurturing these

hapless children and youths over the years, Ogunde prayed

that God will continue to send helpers to the organization that

will support it with their resources and time.

In her response, Oikelome thanked Mrs. Yinka Ogunde and

her family for believing in her vision and identifying with it.

She also thanked them for defying all odds, including the

deplorable condition of the Alagbole/Akute Road to travel all

the way to celebrate her birthday with the children and youths

when she could have opted for more prominent and successful

orphanages in the heart of town.

The two-hour event was thoroughly fun-filled, with lots of

wining and dining, dancing and exchange of pleasantries. The

youths from Ijegun also seized the opportunity to tell Mrs.

Ogunde how WATFON 2017 impacted their lives positively  and changed their mind-set from that of mediocres to become

change-makers that are confident that they have what it takes

to excel in life and make Nigeria better.

Goshen Home & Orphanage was recently commissioned,

precisely on 4th March 2017 by the duo of Mr. Femi Adesina,

Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media &

Publicity and the General Overseer of New Testament

Assembly, Pastor Samson Bamgbayan with a mandate to give

orphans and vulnerable children a beautiful and purposeful

life.