Nigerian Man And His White Wife Start NGO to Help Poor Children, Their Love Story Inspires Many People
Love has no boundaries and can be found everywhere on earth. When people fall in love, they have little choice but to move with it and enjoy the tide and adventure. It often does not matter which ethnic background they hail from. What matters is that they chose to deepen their shared humanity and live the rest of their lives together. Such is the story of Kaitlyn and Henry.
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The love story between Henry and Kaitlyn Agassi sounds fascinating. A new flavour has been added to their lives as the couple recently got blessed with a baby, and they took out some time from parenting duties to share their love journey with Legit.ng.
Source: TikTok
How Henry and Kaitlyn met in Canada
Henry recalls how it all started:
"I met my wife when I was in university, as we both attended the University of Windsor, in Canada."
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What started as a romance between two undergraduates has now led to an interracial marriage that has inspired people on social media. And indeed, Henry and Kaitlyn have a large audience on TikTok, where they have a verified handle and a followership of 2.4 million people. Henry and his wife share their story and lifestyle on the platform and let people know what it feels like to be an interracial couple.
What it feels like to be an interracial couple
Legit.ng also wanted to know what life is like being glued together despite coming from different continents and having different skin colours.
Henry responded:
"I see our interracial marriage as a beautiful and loving adventure. I see it as an adventure because life itself is an adventure. Whatever direction we decide to go; it is an adventure at first, in the sense that you expose yourself to an unknown situation or culture you may not be used to and will soon find out if you love it or hate it."
"In my case, I ended up loving it because I realized there’s not much difference between human cultures because people are people everywhere you go and we all want similar things in life. All humans have similar features, similar dreams and goals thus, our ultimate desire is to make an impact, have fun, and live a happy life. This is the same across cultures. The only difference is skin colour. So, discovering these human similarities in our differences in skin colour made our marriage a beautifully loving adventure for me."
What does it feel like to be married to a Nigerian?
On her part, Kaitlyn says it is a wonderful thing to be married to a Nigerian. The way she wrote about her marriage to Henry, it is clear she relishes the relationship and the mixture of flavours it has added to her life.
Kaitlyn told Legit.ng:
"Being married to a Nigerian has been a wonderful experience so far. Nigerians are generally very warm and welcoming people, that’s why the journey has been very easy and enjoyable for me. And don’t get me started on the food. I love Nigerian food, especially pounded yam and Egusi soup, boiled yam and egg sauce, chinchin, and puff puff. Getting to experience such a rich culture is obviously a positive experience."
Their parents approved of their relationship from day one
Interestingly, the couple said there was no opposition to their relationship from any of the parents. They said everyone supported them.
Henry said:
"There was no challenge at all. We came to visit Nigeria together in 2018 and my family met her and experienced her personality. They saw the kind of person she is and fell in love with her. Just like me, they realized there’s not much difference between a white person and a black person or between a Canadian and a Nigerian, the only difference is our skin colour and what we have been exposed to due to our geographical locations."
"Besides, I don’t think people should have problems with whom people choose to marry, because you will never be in their heart to know how they feel. It should be their choice and you're not going to live with their spouse for them, so why decide for them? The only time other people or family should get involved in other people’s relationships is when there's abuse."
Kaitlyn also had no challenges convincing her family that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Henry. But she said challenges only came from naysayers on social media, and she easily brushed these voices aside.
Her words:
"The only people with problems about our marriage are some strangers on social media, but not from either of our families, so they really didn’t matter. I will say I was lucky that no one in his family or my family opposed our marriage, they were very supportive."
How Henry relocated to Canada
Henry's story and how he moved to Canada to study is a very inspiring one. Born out of wedlock by teenage lovers in Nasarawa state, Henry was picked up and nurtured by his grandfather. Luckily for Henry, his grandfather is a lover of good education, and he sacrificed his resources to ensure the young man went to good schools. Henry told Legit.ng that he has his grandfather to thank for where he finds himself today.
His words:
"I was born out of wedlock in a small village in Nasarawa State to teenage-aged parents and raised by my grandfather, a hardworking farmer with a passion for quality education. I’m from a tribe in Nasarawa State called Koro or Migili. We also have Koro in Kaduna, Abuja and Niger State. My grandfather made sure I acquired quality nursery and primary education through private school sponsorships regardless of the financial situation.
"After my secondary school education in Nigeria. My father got a permanent resident visa for me to live and study in Canada. Three years later, I got my Canadian citizenship while I was still in University."
Henry brings a white woman home after schooling in Canada
When he completed his education in Canada and returned to Nigeria, he came home with Kaitlyn, and they were warmly received. Kaitlyn settled down as if she had known Nigeria all her life and even got a job in Lagos while her husband did his National Youth Service Corps.
Kaitlyn recalled what happened on her first visit and how her opinion of the country and its people was formed.
She said:
"I first visited Nigeria in 2018 with my husband when we were still dating, and I even travelled down to his village. I loved being able to see where he grew up and put locations and pictures to the stories from his childhood. Then in mid-2019 when he moved back to Nigeria to do his NYSC, I got an international teaching job in Lagos for the next school year. I moved to Nigeria in 2020 to be close to him and to experience more of the culture. I lived in Nigeria until 2022, then we got married there and left Nigeria for a new adventure."
Henry and Kaitlyn start an NGO
It was the visit to Nigeria in 2018 that inspired the idea for their NGO, Henry and Kaitlyn Agassi Foundation, through which they cater for less privileged school children. With the few resources they have, the couple helps enrol less privileged kids into school and also provides study materials to many.
As a teacher, Kaitlyn's skills come into play in helping form and run the NGO to achieve their dream of supporting out-of-school children in Nigeria.
Kaitlyn told Legit.ng what she feels about the NGO:
"I am an educator and an international teacher from Ontario, Canada. I graduated from the University of Windsor and St. Clair College with a BA in Child Psychology, a Bachelor of Education in primary/junior division and a diploma in Early Childhood Education. Currently, I spend my days in a kindergarten classroom inspiring children to develop skills and desire for learning while teaching them how to read and write.
"Being a teacher, it wasn’t a hard decision to join in the mission of providing quality education to vulnerable children. I have always had the desire to inspire change through my teaching and otherwise. So when my husband presented this idea to me it wasn’t something to think hard about. We want to also reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, fight poverty with quality education, eliminate the gender gap in education and promote capacity building that will help alleviate poverty. Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world."
What motivated Henry to start an NGO
Henry's inspiration for the NGO came from his experience in Nigeria and what his grandfather did for him.
He told Legit.ng:
"My grandfather ensured I acquired quality nursery and primary education through private school sponsorships regardless of my financial situation. His actions inspired me to be on the path I'm on today because it taught me that no child deserves to be out of school or compromise the quality of their education irrespective of gender, race, or financial situation.
"Another inspiration came when I came back to Nigeria after living in Canada for 10 years to do my NYSC. I and some friends started cooking food and taking it to the IDP camp in Abuja to feed the children every month. And what I saw there broke my heart. Young children scrambled for food with no hope of the future or their next meal. As I observed this situation I decided to do more than share food."
The interracial relationship between Henry and Kaitlyn did not only end in marriage, but it also nurtured an NGO that is helping children.
American man marries Nigerian woman
Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that an American man travelled to Nigeria and married his girlfriend.
The man and the lady met on a dating site and kicked off a relationship.
When their relationship blossomed, the man decided to travel down and marry her properly.
Source: Legit.ng
