Father of NH native NBA player raises awareness for water crisis in Nigeria

The 11^th annual Water Walk was held in Nashua Saturday morning, hosted by Charles Uwakwe Okorie, father of New Hampshire native NBA player Ebuka Okorie.

Charles left his home country of Nigeria with his family in 1998 and moved to the United States. In 2014, he founded the Thank You Project, a nonprofit aimed at giving back to his home country.

“Primarily what inspired me is my conviction that there is good in all of us,” Charles Okorie said. “This is not about me as an individual. All I needed to do was to talk about a problem, and the moment I opened my mouth, everybody gathered and said, ‘Charles, we got this. We got this.’”

The problem Okorie referred to is access to clean drinking water in his home country of Nigeria, where he said the life expectancy is just 54 years.

So, in 2015, Charles started the “Water Walk,” the nonprofit’s biggest fundraiser for bringing clean and reliable water sources to rural Nigeria.

“Something from nature like water, that should be accessible, and we realize that people are dying unnecessarily because they don’t have water to drink,” he said.

Now in its eleventh year in Nashua, the “Water Walk” is symbolic. Participants walk the same path as Charles says many in Nigeria must walk daily, often traveling two miles or more to get water from a river — for water that isn’t even clean.

The funds raised have built seven water wells, with an eighth in progress in Nigeria, and provided scholarships to students there who can’t afford college.

But Charles said the work isn’t done.

“It’s not about us. And it’s about our humanity, our collective humanity, and we’ll be able to change the destinies of the folks in my village, my wife’s village and beyond,” he said.

To donate to the “Thank You Project,” visit the website.