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The sleepy town of Onicha Olona came alive when the Doris Amaka Ochei Foundation (DAO Foundation) on Boxing Day, Thursday December 26,2023, ignited uncommon love for children when it hosted them to a well funded and fun filled Christmas party.

The event which was the Foundation’s second edition Christmas Party for children was held at Ugba Primary School field, Onicha-Olona, in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State.

It was attended by over 2,000 children from all the schools and families within and outside Onicha-Olona.

It had the esteemed presence of the husband of the Founder and Executive Director of DAO Foundation, Dr. (Mrs) Doris Amaka Ochei, Major General Raymond Ochei who was the Father of the Day.

Members of Ezemu Girls Grammar School Old Girls Associations, Ubulu-Uku, Viva Foundation, Lagos and friends of the founder were also at Onicha-Olona to add colour and support to the party.

The monarch of Onicha-Olona, His Royal Majesty, Obi Agbogidi Christopher Uzumefune and members of Obi In Council were also with the children at the event.

At the event, the children who came with their teachers and parents were treated to a three course meal, varieties of activities such as dancing competition, drama portraying the humble birth of Jesus Christ, concentration games, Cultural display, Michy Mouse dance and distribution of gifts by Father Christmas.

The Foundation also distributed over 2000 customized school bags with water bottles, note books, pencils and biros worth millions of Naira to all the children at the party.

In his remarks, the Father of the Day,  Major General Raymond Nkem Ochei commended the Foundation’s activities, which he said  had continued to demonstrate love to the less privileged children and women in the society.

He appreciated them for putting up the party for the children, pointing out that it has continued to bring together the privileged and less privileged children together to interact in love.

The General urged the Founder and members of the Foundation to remain relentless in their efforts towards bringing out the less privileged from poverty, even as he urged those present to continue to uphold the Foundation in prayers with a view to doing more for the betterment of the society.

Earlier in her welcome address, one of the children, Miss Kikachukwu Glory Olunwa said she was excited to welcome guests on behalf of the entire children to their Christmas party.

She appreciated the Founder of DAO Foundation, Dr. (Mrs) Doris Ochei for her kindness towards children and prayed to God to continue to bless the Founder and the Foundation.

Speaking in an interview with Journalists in her country home after the party, Dr. Doris Amaka Ochei appreciated God for the success of the Second Edition of the Foundation’s Christmas Party for Children.

She attributed the Foundation’s gesture to the desire to always want to give back to society.

She said the motivation came out of the need to carry children along, in the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ by way of making them happy and giving them what they will live to always remember for good.

She said when one is blessed, it is not complete if others are not blessed by the one who has been blessed.

She maintained that she is blessed of God and she has made it a duty to ensure that others, especially the less privileged are blessed from that which God has blessed her with.

Dr. Ochei said: “The reason God blesses us is for us to be a blessing to others. If you come to this world, you are so wealthy and you have not touched lives, then you have not come to the world at all.

“Another thing is that for the children, I want to leave a legacy. I want to be able to teach the kids that this is the way to go. Whatever you have, you share. When they grow up they won’t depart from it. They would want to do what I am doing”, she said.

Dr. Ochei revealed that what she was doing was what she learned from people when she was growing up, saying that she admired such gestures and it helped in no small measure in inspiring her in reaching out and giving to the less privileged and the needy in the society.

The highly charismatic woman maintained that she did not establish the DAO Foundation because of politics and that she has never been involved in politics, saying that the Foundation is all about giving back to the society from what God has blessed her with.

“DAO was born out of compassion for humanity. It is a Foundation that is to reach out to the downtrodden, a Foundation that is meant to reach out to those who are genuinely in need and we are indeed living to our goals and objectives. We are torching lives in different ways and one of them is the children’s Christmas Party,” she affirmed.

The DAO Foundation boss also revealed that the Foundation has the youth section and hinted that a programme geared towards empowering the Youths has been fixed for   Easter next year.

“The youth section of our programme comes up by  Easter when some of the Youths would be empowered. We are coming up with a unique idea to empower them and teach them how to fish, from there, they can fish for themselves,” she said.

Doris Amaka Ochei also said her Foundation is focused on Women development, even as she said the DAO Foundation had been able to empower over 140 women who she revealed were given interest free loans to engage in one form of small scale business whereby the loans are put together, return at the end of the year and given back to the women to continue with the business at the beginning of the new year.

“By so doing, they have the capital, year in, year out to continue with their business all the time.

“We also have DAO Market Women Empowerment Programme. It is a scheme basically for market women which we have done in Ubulu-Uku and we are ready to replicate in Onicha-Olona in January 2024,” she said.

While revealing that the Foundation is also involved in infrastructure development for communities such as building and rehabilitation of markets, construction of roads, provision of water bore holes and provision of Solar Street lights, Dr. Doris Amaka reiterated the fact that DAO Foundation remains a Non Governmental Organization being fully funded solely by herself.

She said the Foundation did not receive donations from anybody or from any organization, even as she debunked the insinuation that the Foundation was established for money making just like some other NGOs.

She maintained that she remains a business woman, a serial entrepreneur, a stock broker, having a stock brokerage company, a traveling consulting company, a water producing company and other business that gives her the ease to be able to fund her Foundation.

Other highlights at the event was the Bible quiz, and  cutting of the Christmas cake.

Also of significant importance was the presentation by the K’ibedinma Divas, the wives of K’ibedinma Social Club of Enuani, which in collaboration with DAO Foundation made the following presentations to primary six pupils of two schools to help them to enrol for the Common Entrance and first School leaving certificate examinations in 2024.

The schools which each were presented with a cheque for N300,000 making it a total of N600, 000 were Iyiogbe Primary School and Ugba Primary School, Onicha-Olona.