REV. DR. AUSTIN EPUNAM (JP), NATIONAL CHAMPION, OCI FOUNDATION’S ArOY HEALTH CAMPAIGN

REV. DR. AUSTIN I. EPUNAM (JP), NATIONAL CHAMPION, OCI FOUNDATION’s ArOY HEALTH CAMPAIGN

 Profile Highlights:

• President, Sweet Home Africa Humanitarian Foundation (publishers of the Sweet Magazine)
• Pioneer member, State House Chapel, the Presidency, Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, Nigeria
• Ambassador, Nigerian Christian pilgrim Commission, the Presidency, Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, Nigeria

Rev. Dr. Austine I. Epunam is the National Champion of the OCI Foundation’s Arm Our Youths (ArOY) Health Campaign, having formally joined the Foundation in August 2020. He is the Founder and President of the Sweet Home Africa Humanitarian Foundation (SHAHF), an NGO that he established in 2006 to empower Nigerian youths at home and in diaspora. He did this as part of his efforts to discourage unplanned trips overseas by Nigerians. Beneficiaries of the SHAHF’s activities also include the poor, the elderly and vulnerable communities across Nigeria. The SHAHF publishes the Sweet Magazine, a regular publication through which it pushes its messages across.

Dr Epunam’s profile reveals that, in 2002, he answered the call by the Nigerian Government (then under the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR), to contribute in building the Country’s new democratic system. That response saw him become a pioneer member of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO). He thereafter went on to establish the SHAHF on the 9th of June, 2006. He also became a pioneer member of Aso Rock State House Chapel (Abuja, Nigeria), and an Ambassador of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission, both of which are under the Nigerian Presidency, As Rock Villa, Abuja.

Later, on June 5^th, 2007, the Late President Umaru Musa Yaradua (GCFR) personally signed a letter of support to the vision of SHAHF. Dr Epunam has served and rendered his humanitarian services to all of the last our Nigerian presidents (from 1999 and counting), and this has earned him the nickname of AGIP (All Government in Power).

To ensure that his goals are constantly being met, Rev. Dr. Epunam has embarked on many overseas trips, mainly at his own expense. He has been to countries like the United States of America (USA), Britain and South Africa, as well as multiple countries in Asia and West Africa. In fact, his services to God and humanity, as well as his remarkable humanitarian achievements for Africans in Europe, earned him the title of a “Reverend” from African ministers in that continent.

The SHAHF has an unparalleled love and support for made-in-Nigerian goods (a trait it shares with the OCI Foundation), and they were among the first Nigerians to patronize the Innoson Brand, purchasing a number of the IVM Brand for their humanitarian services over a decade ago. As is common knowledge, the Innoson Group is an official partner to the OCI Foundation’s ArOY Campaign.

Rev. Dr. Epunam was born into a royal, God-fearing, humanitarian and successful family. He had his early schooling at a missionary school, the All Hallows Seminary, and, thereafter, graduated from high school with flying colors at the prestigious Christ the Kings College (CKC). Both schools are in Onitsha, Nigeria. The young Epunam would later study Mass Communication at the Federal Polytechnic Oko, Nigeria, before travelling to Europe for further training and business explorations.

In the 1990s, while in Germany, Dr. Epunam carved out his niche as a Humanitarian Champion. He was moved by the plight of African migrants in Europe, particularly those in prisons, asylums and rehabilitation camps. He worked assiduously to rescue a good number of them, and this noble act gave birth to the SHAHF. He initially called it “Home Sweet Home Foundation”, given his belief that “Home is the Best”, irrespective of whatever one does or wherever one stays.

With some inspirations from his German associates, Dr Epunam’s charity works with Africans, which he started in Europe, would later transform to a strong movement which is now domiciled in Nigeria. This has allowed him to commence services to his fatherland from the homefront, and, as the true philanthropist he is, he excelled at it without counting his losses.

In 2015, Rev. Dr. Austine Epunam was given a Presidential Pilgrim Ambassador Award as the leader of a Transparency Group that have initialed and lifted over 100 Nigerians through private partnership to the holy land of Jerusalem, a trip which recorded no absconders. On September the 12^th, 2019, the transparency and integrity of Sweet Home was further re-enforced and certified by the Human Rights Radio, TV and Reality Magazine called the Brekete Family.

Dr Epunam’s associates and close friends are unanimous in describing him as a man of integrity, who would stop at nothing to protect his hard-earned reputation. His association with the OCI Foundation is a testament to the unwavering commitment the two organisations have towards the sustenance of the mutual values and esteemed brands we have each cultivated over the years, and underlines our collective resolve to deliver the teachings of the ArOY Campaign to all Nigerian schools, states and populace.

Rev. Austine Epunam is a successful businessman and entrepreneur, with interests and investments in Real Estate, Transportation, Travel and Tourism Consultancy, Publishing, Public Relation, Advertising and Image Branding Consultancy.

The OCI Foundation is very pleased to have him as a Champion of its ArOY Campaign at the National level, and we are confident that our dream of having anti-cervical and anti-breast cancer teachings included in the school curriculum of all Nigerian senior secondary schools by 2025, will be a reality.

For the records, the ArOY Campaign is a novel, Harvard-endorsed, WHO-supported, and evidence-based health promotion initiative of the OCI Foundation, which is being introduced across all senior secondary schools in Nigeria as a way of tackling breast and cervical cancers.  It also has support of the United States Centers for Disease Control (U.S. CDC), as well as multiple universities in Australia, Canada and Nigeria.