A Tolworth social worker has set up a charity to help leprosy sufferers in her home village in Nigeria as a tribute to her late husband.
Kate Okonkwo became a widow in 2007 and has since thrown all her energy into setting up The Boat - Banner Over African Troubles.
It was launched at Our Lady Immaculate Church hall on Saturday, July 25, where Nzinga African dancers provided the entertainment.
Mrs Okonkwo, who moved to the UK in 1976 when she married her husband Alex, began helping leprosy sufferers with her father at the age of 7.
They would visit amputees in their colony of Oji River, a place where most adults have the disease, she said.
She now plans to reignite her charity work in the country, after caring for her husband up until his death at the age of 68.
She said: “My husband was my priority. He believed I could do anything I wanted I would do.
“There are so many areas in Africa where lepers have been completely abandoned. There are medicines to cure these people but it’s not getting to them.”
Mrs Okonkwo has spent more than 40 hours a week setting up the charity, on top of her full-time job as a social worker based at Kingston Hospital.
She has recruited three friends to act as directors and three volunteers have already got on board.
Their first aim is to renovate the huts and build a borehole for water in Oji River, which has a population of 250 people.
More details on Mrs Okonkwo’s mission visit the-boat.org.uk.
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