Mount St. Joe student Chierika Ukogo is welcomed by youngsters at the Abuja Children’s Home in Nigeria.

When Chierika Ukogu and her teammates on the Mount St. Joseph Academy crew step out of their specialized rowing shoes following a race or a practice session, they usually slide right into a pair of flip-flops.

In the past few years, though, the ubiquitous rubber thong sandals have taken on a new significance for the Mount junior, and the effects have been felt a continent away.

Her parents, Frances and Joseph Ukogu, grew up in the same town in southern Nigeria, although they did not meet and marry until after they came to the U.S. to further their educational and employment opportunities. On several visits to their hometown of Ukpor, Chierika observed that almost all of the children in this rural district (and most others) went around barefoot, which frequently led to a number of health problems.

After attending a business seminar for students the summer following her freshman year, she established a non-profit NGO (non-governmental organization) called Flip-Flops For Africa, and last July she and her parents traveled to Nigeria to deliver the 10,000 pairs of flip-flops and sandals they had collected.

They distributed much of the footwear themselves, largely at orphanages in Ukpor and in several cities. At times, extraordinary efforts were required to keep the project from becoming snared in bureaucratic red tape, but the 11th grader said, “Once we were giving out the shoes, just to see the joy of the children, it was worth it.”

Ukogu has an older brother, Kemjika, and two younger sisters, Ebonachi and Kenechi. On an alternating basis, one of the children would accompany their parents on an annual summer trip to Nigeria.

During her visits, the Mount student said, “Just the amount of poverty that most of the people were living in made an impression on me. A lot of people were wearing clothes that were dirty or tattered. There’s really a lack of most basic necessities, which is maddening because the country is the fifth-largest producer of oil. They have other natural resources, too, but the money doesn’t get to most of the citizens.”

Routinely, the Ukogus would return to the U.S. with empty suitcases, having shared out most of the clothing that they had taken abroad. At home, Chierika grew up participating in charitable events for her parish church, where she was an alter server. Later, she joined in on volunteer efforts at Mount St. Joe’s, and her family always has a project lined up for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

She often reflected on the condition of people in her ancestral homeland, and the lack of footwear would come to mind.

“You can see people who have open sores on their feet or whose nails are discolored,” she related. “There aren’t many cars, and some people have swollen feet just because they have to walk all the time on dirt roads. There are parasites, and it’s not hard to pick up an infection.”

For even basic medical care, Ukpor residents have to travel more than 20 miles to Onitsha, a city of half-a-million on the Niger River.

“I just thought that everyone should have shoes,” Ukogu said. “It’s a basic necessity. Since Nigeria has a tropical climate, most of the people who do have shoes wear flip-flops or sandals, which they call slippers. It’s too hot for anything heavy; you can start to sweat just sitting down.”

The idea of forming an NGO dedicated to providing footwear came to her in the summer of 2007, when she attended a “Business Boot Camp” sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania and held at the Minority Business Enterprise Center in West Philadelphia.

“You had to develop some kind of business plan,” she explained. “I didn’t want to do it for profit, and I thought of the idea for the charity. They showed you how to make a business plan, and they gave me a lot of pointers on how to further it. I won the award for ‘Best Boot Camper’ because they thought it was one of the better ideas that was put forward.”

Once she had laid the groundwork for her organization, she spread the word by convincing the Catholic Standard and Times to run a story on the project. That fall, her former grade school organized a footwear drive, and at the Mount a week was set aside when students could bring flip-flops to school and have them collected in their homerooms. There were also individual contributions from many sources.

”I didn’t expect to get so many, so I was pleasantly surprised,” she recalled. “I asked for gingerly-used ones, but a lot of people went out and bought new ones on top of the used ones that they had.”

“Because of my age,” she went on, “a lot of people were surprised that I could organize such a big project.”

Her peers were not among those people, though.

“I wasn’t surprised, because Chierika is really studious and very organized, and she has great ideas,” noted fellow junior Laura Pospisil, one of Ukogu’s boatmates in the Mount’s highly successful varsity eight. “She’s very friendly and outgoing, and gets along with everyone. We all knew that this was something that affected her closely, because her family is from Nigeria. It just shows what you can accomplish when you believe in something.”

Another classmate, Maura Dougherty, observed, “It’s great that somebody in school with us can do something that makes a real difference in another part of the world. Chierika’s very accountable and responsible, and I think because she was involved with it people were confident that her plan would help the people it was supposed to help, where with some charities, you’re not sure where the things will end up.”

Even her own parents were surprised by how quickly the effort gathered momentum. Joseph, director of finance for the Doubletree Hotel Philadelphia, helped her file the paperwork to obtain NGO status for Flip-Flips For Africa.

Her mother Frances (a social worker for the City of Philadelphia) admitted, “Initially, you know, when your child wants to start something you think, ‘Oh, more things for me to do.’ But when it took off, it was so fulfilling that I feel like I’m being blessed.”

The family car was soon exiled to the driveway as the garage filled up with flip-flops. Ukogu’s siblings helped sort, box, and label the donated items.

At the beginning of last summer, the packages were shipped out, and early in July Ukogu and her parents boarded a plane for Nigeria. Her father had to return to his job after a few weeks, but Chierika and Frances remained in Africa for almost two months. There were numerous hassles with befuddled government officials who did not know what to make of the American teenager and her thousands of shoes.

Her mother recalled, “I had all the proper papers, but they would tell me ‘these things are contraband.’ To transport them from the point of entry to the capital, Abuja, we had to go through the bus service and they didn’t want to carry it. I had to kind of pay my way through.

“It’s always difficult when you’re doing it for the first time,” she continued. “Later, we contacted a representative from the local government. He said they were going to set things up over there and give an NGO number so that whenever she brings things they no longer will look at it as contraband and will know that it’s for charity.”

In the capital, Chierika explained her mission at a press conference and also appeared on a TV newsmagazine program called “Saturday Morning.”

Soon, the Ukogus were headed out into the countryside, bound for Ukpor. Chierika had last visited the town in 2003, and had kept in touch with her aunts, uncles, and cousins who live there.

Her father explained, “In that general area there are about 20,000 people, but at times, it might seem like the town is deserted. There are a lot of houses, but there’s no employment there, so most people live in the city and then come back home for Christmas and the holidays.”

The Ukogus own a house in Ukpor which is looked after by relatives throughout much of the year. They personally distributed many of the flip-flops they had brought with them, and left others with the parish priest. It was a moving experience for the American teen.

“I got a lot of thank yous and hugs,” she remembered. “Everyone was just really grateful. Some of them were shocked that people actually cared. Obviously, the children in the orphanages didn’t have parents to look after them. It was a really great feeling for them to know that people did not forget them, that people wanted to help them.”

She was able to communicate well with many of the people she met since English is still the official language in Nigeria, a former British colony. In the state of Anambra, where Ukpor is located, the predominant tribe is the Igbo, and the native tongue is called Ibo. Chierika understands it better than she speaks it; her own name means “God is great,” or “God is almighty.”

Just a few weeks after this life-changing visit to her ancestral home, she was half a world away, back in class at the Mount, and back on the river for the fall crew season.

As you might expect, the 11th grader excels in every area. She earned an academic scholarship at school, and particularly enjoys history and the sciences. She hopes to become a surgeon one day.

The slender six-footer has a natural build for rowing, and in ninth grade she was a member of a freshman eight which won the Stotesbury Cup Regatta. She moved up into the top varsity boat as a sophomore, helping win the Scholastic Rowing Association of America national championship for the Magic. She’s back in the varsity eight this year, rowing in the bow seat.

“She’s already being courted by Harvard,” pointed out MSJ varsity coach Mike McKenna. “She has a good sense of humor, but obviously she has her serious side. With Chierika, it’s not always easy to tell the difference. She’s very well liked among the crew, that’s for sure.”

Ukogu remains devoted to Flip-Flops For Africa; she plans to expand the program beyond Nigeria and has set a goal of collecting a million pairs of the sandals and shoes.

“In the future, I’d like to get sponsorship from a major corporation, like Nike® or people that make flip-flops,” she said. “We could use seconds, or things that are out-of-season or out of style – anything would be useful. It would also be nice to get some help from an airline with the tickets.”

Up to now, her parents have had to bear much of the expense for the project, but they know, better than anyone, the worthiness of the cause. Having personally made the transition from a rural African upbringing to a comfortable American lifestyle, they’re extremely proud of their daughter’s effort to reach back to her roots and help those in need.

“We are very fortunate to be here,” Joseph said. “That’s why, when she had this idea it really touched me, touched my heart.”

For more information, contact Flip-Flops For Africa by e-mail at cukogu@aol.com or call 215-969-3928.