As part of its activities to commemorate Nigeria’s independence anniversary celebrations, Trinity House held the sixth in the series of its annual Honour Nigeria Awards ceremony on Sunday, October 2, 2016, recognising Raquel Jacobs and five others with the Honour Nigeria Annual Award.

The Honour Nigeria Awards ceremony inaugurated in 2011 is a day set aside to honour outstanding Nigerians of high integrity who have exemplified themselves in different areas of life. The objective of the awards ceremony is to recognise those who have contributed to Nigeria’s national development and acknowledge them as role models for present and future generations. The awards are in the areas of Leadership, Professionalism, Industry, Philanthropy, Female Leadership and Role Model and the Africa Prize. Nominations for this year’s award opened in August in 6 categories: Professionalism, Industry, Leadership, Female Role Model, Philanthropy, and Contribution to Society.

According to the Senior Pastor of the church, Ituah Ighodalo, “The event is the church’s own way of contributing to the development of the Nigerian nation. Nigeria has as its citizens, some of the most outstanding people that the world has ever seen. We must begin to celebrate all these people and begin to celebrate the good about Nigeria and as we begin to speak great things about this country; we must raise up bright and new role models.”

Delta Deputy Speaker, Ochor, Okorodudu, Latimore, others bag Wisdom Class Award

Jacobs, the founder of Beyond the Classroom Foundation was nominated and awarded the Contribution to Society Award, which is to recognise an individual who has contributed in some form to Nigerian society, against all odds. In 2011, despite being an orphan, sponsoring herself at the University of Lagos, she founded Beyond the Classroom Foundation, an NGO focused on improving education for less privileged pupils in public primary schools. She has been dedicated to her work with children and youths in marginalized communities in Nigeria focusing on education and empowerment for girls. Her projects include Back to School and Project Red Robots that educates and distributes free sanitary pads to poor girls.

Jacobs also co-founded Club31Woman Network, a Christian Ministry of Women supporting each other and mentoring teenage girls to find and fulfil a purpose. She’s a Carrington Youth Fellowship of the US Consulate Lagos (CYFI), a Fellow with Social Innovation Program of LEAP Africa, a 2016 Voices of our Future Fellow and a WEF Global Shaper with the Lagos Hub. In the last four years, she has volunteered with numerous organizations including the World Economic Forum on Africa and the world’s largest student-run organization, AIESEC.

According to Jacobs, “Part of being human is about helping others and If I wait until I have enough before I help anyone, then I will be missing out on the opportunity to be a blessing to so many who have less than I have. I am contributing to the development of society because that is what is expected of every one of us; to be a blessing and be givers rather than just receivers. I am a firm believer that we have done for ourselves alone dies with us but what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.”

Other awardees include Bismarck Rewane who received the Professionalism Award and Retired Nigerian Footballer, Kanu Nwankwo who received the Philanthropy award for the Kanu Heart Foundation.