Obi Light Ogbonnia: The Greatest Reward Is Changing Lives, Not Winning Awards
Obi Light Ogbonnia, Founder and President of Sickle Cell Foundation and Chief Executive Officer at VTN Global Resources Limited, shared a post on LinkedIn:
”Stop Patronising Me with Award Nominations.
My Lifetime Achievement Award Is My Service to Humanity.
I have come to a point in my life where award nominations no longer define my worth.
Please, stop patronising me with nominations.
I have already won something far more valuable through my service to humanity.
Let me share The Greatman Okoko Experience.
At the last Beulah SCD Warriors Welfare Clinic, I met a little boy named Greatman Okoko and his mother.
What touched me most was the mother’s heartfelt appreciation for the free health insurance the Obi Ogbonnia Sickle Cell Foundation (OOSCF) enrolled her son in back in 2024.
Her gratitude was not rehearsed. It was genuine. It came from a mother who understood what access to healthcare means for a child living with sickle cell disease.
Over the years, I have encountered several other parents and caregivers at different gatherings who have not stopped to appreciate me for the Foundation’s intervention in their children’s lives.
Every time this happens, I am reminded that the true reward for service is not always a plaque, a certificate, a title, or a standing ovation in a beautifully decorated hall.
Sometimes, it is the smile of a child whose healthcare needs are covered.
Sometimes, it is the relief in a mother’s voice when she remembers that someone cared enough to help.
Sometimes, it is a simple, heartfelt ‘Thank you’ from a family whose burden has been made a little lighter.
Living with sickle cell disease myself has given me a personal understanding of the pain, uncertainty, and financial burden that families affected by this condition endure.
Through the Obi Ogbonnia Sickle Cell Foundation (OOSCF), I have chosen to turn my lived experience into a mission of service, advocacy, and hope.
Greatman and his mother may never know how deeply their appreciation touched me.
But that encounter reaffirmed something I have always believed: the impact we make in people’s lives is a more enduring measure of success than the recognition we receive.
I am grateful for every honour, but I will never allow the absence of an award to diminish the value of my work.
If a child can access healthcare because we intervened, if a mother can sleep a little better because her child’s health insurance is secured, and if a family feels less alone in its journey with sickle cell disease, then I have achieved something remarkable.
Greatman Okoko, you and your mother gave me an award that no committee can confer and no institution can revoke.
It is called the gratitude of humanity.
And to me, that is a lifetime achievement award.”
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