About the Founder HILCO
I was born like any other child from a humble stable Christian family. As I started growing up, I was taken to school. After a while when I was in primary four my father who was a family caretaker, suffered from malaria and shortly passed away leaving 6 children me being the elder with 13 years.
Since the death of my father, life became hard because my mother who used to be a house wife now had to think of how to look after the family. At 13 years, I started looking for opportunities to work but no body could give me a job and by the way, which job could I do! I lost hope of going to school but my teachers had to make a follow up on me. One day the headteacher came to our home looking for me to find out why I had not attended school.
When I finished my primary level, I passed with flying colors. Sadly, my colleagues joined high school but for me I couldn't.
As I was still looking for a job, one person in my village entrusted me to manage his banana plantation and my reward would be the commission from a customer I brought to buy the bananas. Whenever I earned,I didn't forget my helpless siblings and mother, at this tender age, I had already become the breadwinner of the family.
I will never forget one Friday evening when I met a man who seemed to be knowing me well but I couldn't recognize him. He was riding a bicycle, stopped and called my name. He introduced himself as Christopher and asked me whether I knew him, the truth was, I had heard about his name but I couldn't remember. He asked me whether I was still studying, I told him that I had completed primary level and passed well but there was no opportunity to join high school. He promised to come for me and indeed he came and took me for interviews and introduced me to the headteacher as an orphan and lucky enough, I was given an opportunity to study.
Few months later, things turned round, the school administration and management changed. In the process, the ``good Samaritan`` Christopher who took me left the job. I remained again an orphan for the second time! Christopher had become my godfather. I dropped from school due to lack of school fees and scholastic materials.
To take you back, among the co-curricular activities I enjoyed music and one time our school had hired a music trainer who came to train us. During this course, among the students he identified were capable and talented was me, but I used to be irregular in his trainings as I spent much of the time working in the school farm projects.
As I was in December long term school holiday, I saw a messenger introducing himself as Arthur and he told me teacher Andrew was in need of me. He took me on his bicycle and we met Andrew who told us he had got me a school helping underprivileged talented children. Andrew become my ``savior``, I went and studied on full sponsorship. He helped me with scholastic materials and moral support too because he told me that he had passed through the same life.
``From Zero to hero``,
Right from my childhood, I loved becoming a teacher. It's not surprising, when I finished my studies, I graduated as a diploma teacher, started working with schools and volunteering with non government organizations dealing with children, I met children who were passing through different life challenges. The children and youths were hopeless like I was before! They had lost hope, some would even try to commit suicide. Some were total orphans and homeless, drug addicts, children from extremely poor families, children facing domestic violence, school dropouts, children with chronicle diseases like HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life difficulties. I became a living testimony for them to have hope through counseling and guidance.
It's upon this background therefore, that I got an idea and vision to Start official restoration of hope in young generation.Thus HILCO (Hope In Life Children's Organization)foundation