Lagos — In addition to its regular prayer activities, it identifies, develops and deploys change agents to positively affect Nigeria in line with the Millennium Developmental Goals (MDGs) declared by the United Nations.
The foundation which started in 1991 provides skills for youths, basic primary education for children, empowerment for women and makes available efficient primary health care facilities for people who are unable to afford them.
Over the years, the foundation has attracted over 50,000 women, young people and children and has changed lives for the better.
It has imparted skills in over 5,000 women, provided basic primary education to inner city children, provided primary health care facilities to over 1,500 people and has rescued over 120 sexually abused young girls amongst others.
Founder of the foundation, Mrs Jumoke Adenowo said the institution has planned to take multitudes of youths, children and women to the next level in the next few years adding that with great contributions of two trustees of the foundation, Idorenyen Enang, former Managing Director of Samsung Electronics and Tonye Cole, Executive Director Sahara Energy Limited much will be achieved.
Enang said he is privileged to be part of Awesome Treasures Foundation. He said this privilege was nurtured by the wealth of experience he drew from his co-founding Corporate Shepherds, a social entrepreneurship organization with a mission to teach, guide and motivate individuals and organizations to achieve their full potential.
“Personally, I’m one of the few that hold women in very high esteem. Not for any fantastic reason other than love for human beings. I’m a student of the Bible and I know the best creation God ever made was women. As a matter of fact, all through my corporate career, if I ever had slots in whatever form I’ll rather have a 60-40 percent split in favour of women.
“I’ve seen it work, whether I have women in my leadership team or working directly with me, they give their all and it ties back to what I said. If you look at the Bible, the transformational agents are women.
“Women are the runners of the nation and what Awesome Treasures does is to transform the nation to help these women to rise and understand that productivity is her responsibility, catering for the generation yet-to-be-born is her responsibility, also believing the values that would make the next generation move is her responsibility. Women for me are catalysts for national transformation,” Enang expressed.
Awesome Treasures is one of few establishments Enang believes is at the centre of transformation, even though he concedes there can’t be any transformation without God. His is no clergyman but an ardent believer in Christ.
“Overtime, I noticed that with that principle, I have been able to carry on projects without requiring financial aid and it is so because Awesome Treasures was born out of God’s given vision which makes it different from others.
“Spirituality is core in the entire project, starting with the prayer being the foundation of the project. But that isn’t all there is. An additional outfit called National Women Prayer Summit is also one of the supporting pillars in the foundation,” Enang explained.
Tonye Cole also brings his passion to the foundation – addressing issues that affect women and youths in the society. He said this passion puts him on the advisory board of the Awesome Treasures Foundation.
He explained that his involvement in Awesome Treasures Foundation is to maintain gender balance on issues: “So if you are driving something from the female point of view and you want answers, you want solutions. I think it would help to have a balance of them in order to know how it is done.”
According to him, his commitment to the foundation is tied to the fact that the NGO deals with spirituality, womenfolk and youths. He said the foundation has moved from talks, prayers and discussions into action.
The organisation’s National Prayer Women Summit 2013 which took place recently at Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos with the theme “Shalom: Peace, Progress, Prosperity” was a gathering of minds with one focus. That focus was in the translation of the message into what God wants.
Awesome Treasures is not a church but an organization that uses prayers as one of the vehicles for transformation. The youth summit which serves as motivational tool, is another vehicle. It holds that to transform the society, it must begin with children. The transformation here aims at breaking mindset and building new behaviours.
