The Merry Hearts Foundation is a non-governmental organization that reaches out to underprivileged pre-university youth in impoverished regions of the world. We are constantly seeking ways to make a significant impact in educating and improving living conditions for those in need. We provide financial, moral, material and intellectual support in equipping students with the tools they need to succeed academically and socially.
The WeDesign initiative is a branch of the Merry Hearts Foundation that focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). It is designed with informing our youth, especially young girls, that they can be very valuable in these fields.
In the world today, almost everything runs on some form of technology. Additionally, there is a surplus of jobs in the technological, and engineering fields, and a lack of skilled individuals who can fill those roles. This is especially true for minorities.
The WeDesign initiative is meant to encourage youth to get involved in technology, science, and math. It is meant to be a source of encouragement, and peak the interest of our youth. Young people are our future, and the next doctors, engineers, and technology leaders are among them.
Healthy-You is an initiative that is a part of the Merry Hearts Foundation. Healthy-You works with qualified medical professionals to educate youth about the importance of hygiene and the up-keeping of their general health needs.
During our several visits to Nigeria to award scholarships to students in the past years, one thing has always stood out about all the communities we have had the great opportunity of experiencing; each one of them either lacked a library or had libraries in dilapidated conditions. As a result of this, we were moved to sit down and brainstorm on ways that we as a foundation could do something to change the state of the Library systems or lack of it in Nigeria. What we concluded was that there is a real need to build libraries in Nigeria. Hence, the Merry Hearts Foundation (the ?Foundation?) Build-a-Library project was conceived. The purpose of the project is to provide books to students as well as to create a place where the entire community can use as a resource of information and education.
In 2008, Merry Hearts Foundation discovered the Ososo Community in Nigeria. The initial goal of the organization was to provide scholarships in December, 2009 to selected primary/secondary school students experiencing financial difficulties. However, upon finding out more about the community and the needs of the community, we discovered that despite the fact that this community has over 35,000 inhabitants, there is no library in the community. In addition, education is fast developing in this community and having a library will contribute to the learning process. As a result of this discovery, we have chosen the community of Ososo as the inaugural location for our project.