Dear Friends,

I would like to express my appreciation for your remarkable support since I arrived in Chicago for my studies. The contributions you have made to my stay over the past one and half years have been invaluable to me and the people of Nsukka Diocese in general.  I cannot really thank you enough for giving your time and money. May you be forever rewarded.


I arrived here on the 24th of February 2018 to get an experience of Montessori education with the goal of bringing it back to my country. This has not been an easy journey, but thank God for the gift of someone like you, whose benevolence has made my studies a success. I sincerely know and understood all the sacrifice you have made and still making for this noble project of opening up a good Montessori school in Nsukka, but like Oliver Twist, I solicit for more of your continued support, especially now that am going back to implement and practice what I have learned.


I plead that you consider a three-years’ commitment to helping me bring this project to fruition.  If I can go back with a concrete plan on how to actualize this dream, both with a written action plan (https://www.stbenedictnigeria.com/) and the funding to support the Diocese of Nsukka, we can bring this plan to fruition within the next three years. After three years of support, I believe the Diocese of Nsukka will be poised to sustain this program for future generations of students. I truly can’t thank you enough for all you have already done for me, but please I still ask that you help me sustain the good work your efforts have begun in me as I return to my diocese to make our dream a reality.


Thanks and remain blessed, Fr. Uchenna Matthew Okwor

Scholarshiip programs available

These students at Holy Innocents School have scholarships from generous believers who hear the words of Jesus in their heart and support the education of Nigerian students in the Nsukka Diocese. Contact the US Director of Partnerships, Esther Hicks, if you are willing to sponsor a school child.

Learning continues

 Students in the new school are organized differently. Instead of sitting in rows of benches, repeating their teacher's lessons, they can engage in discussion.

Charts on the walls are used to display new material and these students can learn and present the material to each other.

International Coalition Explained

Article from The Rockford Observer

Catholic Educators Gather in Chicago

Most Rockford Diocese Schools Send Representatives to NCEA

By Amanda Hudson, News Editor

May 16, 2019

ROCKFORD—Most all of the Catholic schools in the Rockford Diocese attended one, two or all three days of the NCEA conference in Chicago, says Vito DeFrisco, assistant superintendent for Curriculum, Assessment and School Recognition for the diocese.

It was the 23rd NCEA conference for DeFrisco, who also is serving as interim superintendent at Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock. His diocesan coworkers Michael Kagan and Elizabeth Heitkamp also were among the 9,000 attendees from around the country.

Additionally, DeFrisco served as a presenter, part of a panel that shared information about an international partnership that has provided educational and medical expertise from the Midwest to the Catholic Diocese of Nsukka in Nigeria. Other panel members from Chicago were Carol Fendt, Ph.D., Gilbert Ezeugwu, Matthew Okwor, Brenna O’Hearn, Kathleen Johnson and Conelius Obe. 

The program was initiated in 2007 when Bishop Emanuel Okobo and Cardinal Francis George, OMI, united to assist in the creation of a system for the Catholic schools of Bishop Okobo’s Nigerian diocese.

Although the archdiocese did not provide funding, DeFrisco explains they supported the effort by giving employees time to share educational expertise, providing facilitators for leadership training and planning for systemic improvements at Nsukka diocesan schools.

The effort included 17 Nsukka parishes, one hospital, and one university, DeFrisco says. He traveled to Nigeria in 2010 and 2011 and was able to share some of his experiences and impressions of the challenges and hopes for the Diocese of Nsukka at the NCEA session.

Although the turnout for his last-day, after-lunch session was small, DeFrisco said the panel “energized” him and “allowed us to recommit” to the Nsukka partnership, which is no longer supported by the Chicago Archdiocese.

Regular visits to Nigeria have been supplemented by frequent use of online conferencing to provide staff training and help in the development of a Catholic Education Office in Nsukka. 

The computer room in a new school  photo by Esther Hicks

The partnership has led to the development of a model school in Nsukka, development, and support for health care, promotion of entrepreneurial learning, and development of a Montessori approach to education in Nsukka. It has broadened “understanding of self and others on both sides, and information, communication, and technology development in Nsukka,” says the NCEA program.

“My Nsukka experience has allowed me to grow spiritually, professionally and personally,” DeFrisco says. “It has helped me become a better educator by understanding and experiencing a greater “global” picture. My worldview has changed.”

The people of Nsukka, he adds, “gave us an understanding of life that I will never forget. In life, it is not just the material things you own. It is the positive relationships you hold dear to your heart.

“I will never forget my rich experiences, and I hope to return to Nsukka someday and maintain my friendship with my friends from halfway around the world.”

Preparing Leaders in Every Area

Science  Classes 

As a model school, the students here are learning through their own experience rather than by rote.

Step inside St. Benedict College

Readers here have watched and waited for photos of the students inside the ever growing St. Benedict African College, the k-16 model school for the Diocese of Nsukka. These students are delighted to show their visitors (with the camera) the bracelets they had just completed.

Students show off the bracelets they just completed.

First Building Occupied

Looking at this beautiful school building brings different smiles to
many different faces. The Diocese of Nsukka sees their future

strengthened with energetic faith-filled, educated young people.

Students envision years of study that will inform their own families

and the wider community. The faces of the members of the

Committee of Interests formed in 2007 realize their efforts 

over the last ten years are finally, elegantly visible to their eyes.
Each person on this committee represents a network of supporters
contributing insights, encouragement, collaboration, and resources
to these efforts for over a decade. They provide strategic planning
and accounting service in addition to their networking efforts.  
Many have traveled to Nsukka themselves or hosted the visitors
from Nsukka in their homes and agencies. All of these men and
women are deeply pleased to see this building finished, named,
and filled with its first class of students.

The site plan prepared by Schools for the Children of the World
shows the need for ten more similar buildings needed to make
this a model school for the entire diocese. Your help is needed
throughout 2018 to move this project forward. If you can write
a check please send it to Schools for the Children of the World,
Kim Blackford, Director of Development, Post Office Box 1157,
Avon, CO 81620. Make the check out to them and write NSUKKA
in the memo line.  Online donations are made at
http://www.schoolsforchildren.org/   with a note that
you are supporting this Nsukka school project.