Saturday, July 20, 2019

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

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

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.

Monday, June 24, 2019

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.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

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.”

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Preparing Leaders in Every Area





Science  Classes 

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




Thursday, April 25, 2019

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.