Raise a Generation
In the 1970s, a young man named Innocent started a children's club in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He called it the Happiness Club. He did not have a budget, a building, or a staff. He had a Bible, a conviction, and an extraordinary love for children.
Fifty years later, the children who passed through the Happiness Club serve as pastors, missionaries, doctors, and leaders — across Nigeria, across the diaspora, across the world. They still call him Uncle Innocent. They still write to him. And he has never stopped believing that the most powerful investment you can make is in a child who knows the Lord.
The foundation's children's ministry pillar carries that same conviction forward. It supports child evangelism, curriculum and resource development, mentorship programming, and the kind of sustained, relationship-based ministry that the Ononiwus have practiced their whole lives. Because Sunday school should not be the end of a child's faith journey. It should be the beginning.
Support children's ministryChildren's Ministry in a Digital Age
Dr. Innocent's 2024 book introduces the TEEM-ED model of children's ministry — a framework drawn from nearly fifty years on the ground. With a foreword by Dr. Tracey Jones.
Buy on Amazon →By the numbers
Years of active ministry
50+ years across Nigeria and the United States
Ministries established
Ile-Ife · Port Harcourt · Maryland · Chesapeake · York, PA
Outcomes
Pastors, missionaries, doctors, and community leaders — raised in the Happiness Club
Books authored
4 books, including the TEEM-ED framework for children's ministry in the digital era
Your gift funds
Curriculum, training materials, mentorship programs, and child evangelism outreach
Build a Dream
Dr. Innocent and Victoria Ononiwu know what it is to arrive in a country with credentials, vision, and very little else. They know what it costs to build something from nothing. And they know — because they have done it — that a well-run business can change not just your own life, but the lives of everyone around you.
Aloft Healthcare, the company they founded, now employs more than 30 people and serves some of Maryland's most vulnerable residents. That did not happen by accident. It happened because two immigrants believed in each other, worked relentlessly, and refused to let the difficulty of the beginning determine the outcome.
The foundation's entrepreneurship pillar exists for the person who has everything it takes — except the start. It supports aspiring small business owners in Nigeria and in the United States: people who may be facing the same barriers the Ononiwus once faced, who just need someone to believe in them enough to help them begin.
This support takes the form of seed funding, mentorship, business development resources, and access to networks that first-generation entrepreneurs often struggle to reach. Because the Ononiwus know that what they needed most, at the beginning, was not a handout. It was a hand up.
Support entrepreneurshipBy the numbers
Founders' business
Aloft Healthcare — DDA-certified, 30+ employees, serving adults with disabilities
Geographic reach
Nigeria and the United States — equally global in scope
Who we support
First-generation entrepreneurs with vision, limited access to capital and networks
How we help
Seed funding, mentorship, business development resources, and network access
Your gift funds
Seed grants and mentorship for aspiring entrepreneurs in Nigeria and the US
Fund Discovery
Biomedical research is not a career Dr. Innocent Ononiwu fell into. It is, in the most literal sense, the reason he came to America. In 2003, he arrived at Howard University in Washington, D.C., to begin a postdoctoral fellowship — the first of three. He completed fellowships in Pharmacokinetics, Neuropharmacology, and Cancer Pharmacology, and went on to spend 33 years teaching in medical and pharmacy schools across the country.
He served as the founding coordinator of the BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences program at Elizabeth City State University, as a visiting scholar at UNC Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy, and as an adjunct assistant professor at Howard University College of Pharmacy. Science, for Dr. Innocent, is not abstract. It is personal. And it is consequential.
The foundation's biomedical research pillar is an investment in the scientists who come after him — in Nigeria and in the United States. It supports researchers who are working to understand disease, advance treatment, and expand the frontier of what is possible in medicine. Because the research that matters most often comes from the people who have the least institutional support to do it.
Support biomedical researchGod Knows My House Number
Dr. Innocent's personal collection of testimonies — tracing God's faithfulness through decades of life in family, finances, ministry, and science.
Buy on Amazon →Dr. Innocent's credentials
Academic background
PharmD (Obafemi Awolowo University) · PhD in Pharmacology
Postdoctoral fellowships
Pharmacokinetics · Neuropharmacology · Cancer Pharmacology — Howard University
Teaching career
33 years in medical and pharmacy schools across the United States
Research reach
Nigeria and the United States — advancing research on both continents
Your gift funds
Research grants, fellowships, and institutional support for early-career scientists
Ready to Give?
Every one of these pillars was built on a lifetime of sacrifice. Your gift joins that legacy — and makes the next chapter possible.
Donate to the Foundation