Touching lives differently...
Nikki Udezue Foundation (NUF) is a youth and woman-led nonprofit organization focused on positively impacting the lives of people in communities, especially marginalized groups, the vulnerable, and the poor, through socio-economic development interventions.
We employ inclusive and community-driven approaches to solve social ills and contribute to the lives of all people in their sphere of limitation by increasing their access to socio-economic, health, security, and development opportunities.
NUF is in the fields of humanitarian support, emergency relief services, socioeconomic development, equality and equity, youth inclusion in governance, civic education, family support, and human capital development. Over the past decade, NUF has been identified as a conscientious development partner in Nigeria.
At NUF, our desire to improve living conditions for marginalized groups and provide a fair society for all has led us to adopt global best practices, learning from them and contextualizing them for use in the communities in which we work and live.
We do this through our network of community-grown change agents who continually work to make their communities fair and just societies, impacting human lives one person at a time.
We see ourselves as contributors to ending the scourge of poverty, inequality, and injustice, especially in inner cities and rural areas of Nigeria. As such, we create opportunities for partners who are not able to reach these communities to still make contributions to making the lives of people whom we share humanity with more conducive.
Our partners range from individuals to corporate bodies, secular and religious, as well as state and non-state actors who understand and believe in our vision for supporting these communities and are willing to do the same through the myriad of resources at their disposal.
We equally ensure that the trust of donor organizations and well-meaning individuals is kept and pursued to the letter through transparency frameworks, maintaining the highest accountability.
Our work has allowed us to, and we continue to, make a difference in the lives of marginalized groups, including but not limited to women (especially widows), orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), young women, victims of gender-based violence (GBV), communities recovering from conflicts, insurgency, and natural and manmade disasters, the aged, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and ethnic and religious minorities.
To empower the underprivileged to afford the essential standard of living and sustain others around them with dignity.
Committed to helping vulnerable people alleviate poverty through innovative projects, the efforts of a dedicated team, support from organizations and voluntary donors.
➥ We are FOCUSED
➥ COMMITTED to a TRANSPARENT and HONEST PARTNERSHIP in our operations.
➥ Sincerely COMPASSIONATE in our interface with the vulnerable people.
➥ RESILIENT in the execution of our programs.
We realize that there is one set goal, and to achieve it, we must set our eyes and work towards it. Our team members are the custodians of our vision and the embodiment of our goal. Each of us works assiduously to bring it to pass. Simply put, we are goal oriented.
We uphold the trust of partners, team members, and beneficiaries and conduct ourselves in harmony with the most true, honest, and transparent moral codes and professional ethics. We and our initiatives are see-through as we interact with communities.
We are loyal to our cause, with an unwavering devotion. Through our work, we ensure that we are found to be reliable. Working compassionately to achieving social change.
We strongly uphold participatory and inclusive approaches to bridging gaps and problem solving. While we create and maintain linkages with organizations that support our work, we also strongly uphold the views of our beneficiaries and consider them as major partners with whom we can address social problems with participation from the affected communities. Vertically and horizontally, we create and maintain lasting relationships, embracing our differences as uniqueness.
We realize that social change takes time, and we are dogged in our refusal to give up or be intimidated by daunting challenges that impede the development of our communities. We ensure that we learn from every challenge we face and set standards for better results-driven implementation.
Borrowing from the drive of our founder, who was inspired by her quest for solutions to the sufferings of the masses and a desire to contribute her quota to alleviating the misery and poverty prevalent in Nigeria, we realize that the many ills in society are a fallout from the multifaceted social problems in our clime. Thus, our approaches to solving these ills are equally multi-faceted through:
• Developing culturally sensitive approaches to solving community needs.
• Driving for innovative systems and ingenious creativity within communities.
• Enhancing and utilization of local structures, learnings and resources.
• Prioritizing the humanity of the people in communities where we work.
• Identifying signals of and working to prevent the befalling of disasters in communities.
• Leveraging on global networks to provide localized solutions.
• Enhancing coordination and networking.
• Addressing root causes of fundamental human rights and inequality concerns while also meeting the immediate needs of our target stakeholders.
• Partnerships with Community Based Organizations, Nongovernmental organizations and International Nongovernmental organizations to ensure sustainability of our initiatives in communities.
NUF is led by a Board of Trustees, which has the oversight function of steering the organization's long-term strategies. The executive council, led by the President, has the highest administrative authority. The council will co-opt managers in varying capacities of expertise. The administration, finance and grants, communications and media, monitoring and evaluation, and programme managers will be included in the executive council, as shown in the organogram below:
FOUNDER/PRESIDENT
Nkeiru is a Hospitality/Aviation expert with a combined work experience of 12 years; 5 years in Hospitality administration and 7 years in the Aviation industry.
During this period, She has led as the Head of Department for Cabin services, managing both the front and back end of operations in the business of Private Aviation, excelling at customer service delivery and also impacting positively the lives she has come across. Previously, she held positions as the Unit Manager of Sundry Foods Limited (Kilimanjaro fast food chain) and as the Head of Administrative Department of White Cloud Media Abuja.
Nkeiru holds a B.Sc. degree in Geography and Planning. Upon graduation in 2002, she was exposed to children in the rural areas while she taught in a secondary school in Duduguru, Lafia, Nassarawa State. She has also had the opportunity to interact with more children while working with the Essence International school, Kaduna. These experiences got her more involved in relating with children across different demographics; the girl child, orphans, vulnerable people in communities and numerous others. She is very passionate about her vision to ensure that the poor and vulnerable get the basic standard of living, constantly helping the poor and vulnerable and ensuring that people around her get the best of comfort as much as possible.
She is also very keen on ensuring that the rights of the vulnerable people are protected and ensures equality at all times.
Nkeiru, popularly known as the SKY QUEEN and the QUEEN OF POSITIVE VIBES, has had the opportunity to meet a myriad of people while travelling around the world. This has broadened the scope of her thinking as regards to how well things can and should be done in our communities.
Nkeiru is happily married to a Medical Doctor for over 15 years. She is a mother to over 1000 children with 2 biological kids and other adopted children.
TRUSTEE
Chinasa is a lawyer of 14yrs experience in legal practice and research. She has also served as a Senior Legislative Aide in National Assembly for 11years. She holds a Masters degree in law and presently running Ph.D in International Economic Law. She is also a certified human capital development consultant . She is passionate about the uplifment of the poor and vulnerable.
She has handled a lot of pro-bono cases for poor widows to ensure they are not deprived of justice. She is also an advocate for the protection of the rights of the girl child.
Chinasa is happily married to a Medical laboratory Scientist for 20years with 4 wonderful kids.
TRUSTEE
Yvonne is a Process Safety Manager with over 10 years’ experience in the Chemical Industry. She holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from McNeese State University, USA. As an African American female who works in a male-dominated field she learnt early on that you need drive, determination, hard work and most importantly God to succeed.
That being said, millions of people have all the above and lack the financial resource to attain their dreams, therefore I resolved in my heart to pay it forward. To be who I am today, I’ve had enormous help along the way. Deep down in my heart I knew if only I could find a reputable foundation or organization perhaps I can give back to the country that shaped and molded me.
I am proud to be a part of Nikki Udezue Foundation, a foundation built on transparency with the sole intention to help the less privileged. Born and raised in Nigeria but currently residing in USA, you have to be blind to not notice the huge disparity when it comes to the basic necessities of life (food, shelter and clothing). These days in Nigeria education seems to be a privilege when it should be a right. I know we cannot help everyone but we can at least try to help some.
Yvonne is a wife and mother. She is married to a Nurse, the love of her life and father to her two beautiful daughters. Yvonne loves to travel in her spare time and enjoys the company of her loved ones.
TRUSTEE
Alh. Mustafa had a vast working experience in the banking industry, spanning over three decades. During this period, he worked in all parts of Nigeria in various capacities as a lending banker, Branch Manager, Internal Auditor and Area office administrator.
It was while working as a young branch manager in the late 1980s in some rural communities in Northern Nigeria that he first came in contact with what the rural poor looked like. In some of these communities, lives of pregnant women and children were most times in jeopardy just for their inability to procure drugs of less than #2000 prescribed for them in the public hospitals.
Alh. Mustafa holds a University Diploma in Banking, a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's degree in International Relations.
In retirement, he obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Education. This was in an attempt to find a way to make an impact on the lives of the young ones by going into voluntary teaching in our public schools. This experience was again very instructive.
He is survived by his wife and children.
The Nikki Udezue Foundation Trustees will dearly miss him.
May his gentle sould rest in peace.
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