My name is Akinde Deborah Oluwatamilore, and my journey began with pain most children should never know.  At just five years old, I was abandoned. No warm hands to hold me. No voice to call my name with love. No place to call home. I remember staring into the night, clutching my little hands, wondering why the world felt so cold to someone so small. 

The laughter of other children became a distant echo in my mind, a sound I longed to hear but could not touch.  Life could have ended there, in loneliness and despair. But in the midst of my darkest chapter, a miracle found me. A Families with eyes full of compassion reached out, not just to feed me or clothe me, but to love me as their own. 

They became my parent in every way that mattered. Through them, I learned what it meant to be cherished, protected, and valued. Their arms became my safe haven, and their love lit a fire in me, a fire to give back that same hope to other children who have been left in the shadows.  

That fire is now The Cherish Impact Initiative. I know what it means to be unseen, unheard, and unloved. I also know what it feels like when someone believes you matter. 

This is why we fight for vulnerable and underserved children, because no child should ever feel like they were a mistake, and no dream should be buried because of life’s unfair beginnings. Today, my pain has become my purpose. Every meal we serve, every child we shelter, every smile  we restore is a promisec, that no matter where they come from, They are Cherished.

              “Charity Is About The Love Of Giving, Not The Weight Of The Offering.”