Oduduru’s foundation provides ‘education, good life’ to orphans, 18 so far on scholarship

Nigerian sprinter, Divine Oduduru has officially launched a foundation, named Divine Oduduru Foundation, which caters for orphans and needies in the society.

The 24-year-old Olympic athlete said the foundation is geared towards providing education and a good life to children who lack the means.

Speaking on the reason for starting the foundation, Oduduru recounted his growing up days in Delta State, where he saw children with no parents finding it difficult to achieve their life dreams.

And according to him, about 18 children are already benefiting from the scholarshpip programme of the Oduduru foundation.

“My foundation is really focusing on taking care of orphans who don’t have means of getting the better life they would have gotten if their parents were alive,” Oduduru said.

“At the moment, we have 18 children on the foundation’s scholarships, we are to provide education and good life for them.

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“We are in a country whereby orphans are finding it difficult to enjoy and I am looking at how we can make them feel the love, the joy and happiness of every other child.

“We want to pick up children hawking on the streets, send them to school, those with no home to stay, provide accommodation for them, we are already putting up a structure whereby all these children will be staying and going to school from there.

“It didn’t stop at that, we are reaching out to the hospitals to help those who could not afford their bills, give hope to those that are hopeless and also reach out to the widows and those in remand homes across the country because we want a better future for all of them.”

The four-time NCAA champion in American collegiate competition holds personal bests of 9.86 seconds for the 100m and 19.73 seconds for the 200m.

Oduduru made the history last year at the NCAA Championships in Texas, becoming the second Nigerian and third African in the championships’ history to achieve such a feat.

His 9.86 seconds 100m run placed him as the second fastest in the Nigerian all-time list, behind Africa’s fastest man, Olusoji Fasuba who ran 9.85 seconds in May 2006.

And Oduduru’s 19.73 seconds run in the 200m, which won him a gold medal, was the fastest time ever run by a Nigerian in the category.

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